A New Light
by Talim Sparrow
Summary: Set 20 years after the movie, Jareth and the Labyrinth are slowly dying. Is there any hope for our favorite Goblin King?
1. The Book

**A/N Hello Everyone I am bored and when I get bored I get strange so welcome to my new world where I have enslaved the creatures of the Labyrinth to do my bidding for my own amusement, and now for yours. Takes place approximately twenty years after the movie. In my story universe Sarah's rejection is causing Jareth and the Labyrinth to slowly die out. Is there any hope for our favorite Goblin King? I blame any OOCness to the fact that its 20 years later and they are slightly different people.... yeah.... Anyway own nothing that doesn't belong to me.**

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**Chapter 1: The Book**

Kiara stared at the clock on her desk as the seconds slowly ticked by. With a long drawn out sigh she turned back to her binder where she had her newest fantasy book hidden from view. It was another regular work day, full of clock watching, daydreaming and avoiding her more annoying co-workers. She turned the book to the first page and began to read while at the same time trying to be attentive enough to the world around her to hear if anyone was coming up behind her.

Barely through the first chapter and Kiara was already annoyed with the main character who was an absolute spoiled brat that was for some reason blaming all her problems on a one year old boy that couldn't even speak yet. Kiara held her head up with one hand wishing she had a little brother to be annoyed by; growing up in a bunch of different orphanages and foster homes wasn't exactly the best way to understand how brothers and sisters were supposed to interact. Every time she had to move to a new place she delved deeper into a fantasy life to cope and now that she was full grown she still believed in magic and fantasy lands.

Kiara's thoughts changed to a memory that she would have rather not revisited. A few years before, her boyfriend of a few months broke up with her because she was "too strange"; Kiara spent a few days spiraling down in a depressed state contemplating the existence of her fantasy world. Eventually she decided that reality was no more than what she saw each and every single day, it was boring and the only magic that existed was simple tricks. The very idea that kept Kiara sane was broken and she attempted to kill herself, she could not live in such a dull world. The depression eventually lifted only to be repeated several times since.

With a shake of her head Kiara pulled herself out of that line of thinking and went back to the story. The scars were hidden so as not to remind herself of the possibility that magic did not exist and she intended to keep it that way even if she wasn't always successful. She let out of a small laugh at herself wondering how she ever came to be the way she was; she was a science major in college and understood all too well how the world around her worked and yet she still needed to believe with all her being that somewhere out there were creatures that didn't adhere to the normal laws of science.

Footsteps came up behind her and she slowly closed the binder and picked up a pen as she turned towards her computer and looked at the spreadsheet that she had completed hours ago. Her boss stepped through the small opening into her cubicle and gave her a small smile, "I know I already gave you a large task today with that spreadsheet, but here are a few things more I need done by the end of this week."

"Not a problem, sir," Kiara said with fake enthusiasm and took the papers from him. As soon as he was gone she rolled her eyes at the man. He seemed to think that all of these tasks took forever just because he didn't know how to use a computer. She also overheard him tell another manager that she wasn't too passionate about her job, hence the fake enthusiasm at creating more spreadsheets. She got busy and completed her weeks work before the day was even over and it was only Monday.

She went back to her new book and flipped through some more pages and found a small map of the labyrinth. Underneath the picture was a footnote that stated that the labyrinth changed at will and no map would ever be completely accurate. Kiara smiled and laid her head down on the desk, "I wish the goblins would take me away, right now."


	2. The Labyrinth

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. One chapter up and I already have a reviewer. All my love to notwritten who have read my other story too. I've got Jareth tied up here, if you want him back then.... enjoy the story...**

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**Chapter 2: The Labyrinth**

Thunder crashed and all of the lights went out in the building. Kiara heard some people making confused noises and some were cursing at the bad timing of the power outage. The next thing she knew was that she felt something pull at her from underneath her desk and then all was completely dark. A few minutes later she opened her eyes wondering when she had closed them; she began to look around and found that she was no longer in her cubicle, but in the middle of a wasteland. She laughed and assumed that she had fallen asleep on the job and hoped that no one would catch her, when she found that she couldn't wake herself up she shrugged and headed straight to what she correctly assumed was the labyrinth she was just starting to read about.

"I don't remember having a dream as vivid as this," she said to herself, "Maybe I fell and hit my head when the power went out." She nodded certain she knew what was happening and found a small man spraying something at what appeared to be little bugs. "Hi!" Kiara waved towards the man who looked at her for a second before returning to his task.

"What do you want?" the little man asked.

"Well I am not sure how I got here or how to get out for that matter. Could you help me? I'm Kiara by the way," Kiara took a few more steps towards the small man and looked down at the bug that he had killed. She was amazed to see that it wasn't a bug at all but a small fairy. She slowly reached for it before the man stopped her.

"They'll bite you. You got yourself here cause you wished something here. That's how everyone gets themselves into this mess. Normally Jareth would explain all this to ya, but he ain't come out of his castle in over ten years," the man continued to walk and spray and Kiara followed.

"Oh, well what do I need to do?"

"You've got yourself thirteen hours to get to the castle or whatever you wished here'll stay here forever. Don't you know the story?"

"No, I barely started the book. What's your name?"

The man looked up surprised, none of the runners that came through asked or even knew his name except Sarah and it had been about twenty years since he had seen her. "I'm Hoggle," he said.

"Hello Hoggle, can you help me get to the center then to meet this Jareth? I have some questions for him."

"What kind of questions?" Hoggle began to head towards the door as he spoke, it really didn't matter to him anymore if the runners made it to the castle or not. Jareth hadn't been seen by anyone in the past couple of years except the goblins that worked in the castle. Hoggle wasn't even sure if he ever spoke to any of the runners anymore.

"First off, I would like to know what really happens if I don't make it in time. Like is it like those stories where if you die in the dream you die in real life? If I get myself stuck here will I actually be a vegetable in a coma in the real world? Secondly, what would happen to me if I wanted to stay here?" Kiara followed Hoggle through the doors and into the first set of twists and turns. She barely noticed that the first turn was an illusion making it almost invisible since she was more focused on her conversation with Hoggle.

"This ain't a dream girlie; you got yourself into this and if you don't make it in time whoever you wished here'll turn into a creature of the labyrinth." Hoggle knew his way around the labyrinth perfectly and knew every single shortcut even if the labyrinth moved however lately it didn't move around as much anymore. He was positive that he could get the new girl there by lunchtime.

"Really? What will I turn into?" Kiara was a bit excited now, as long as she wasn't turned into something completely revolting it might be fun to be a magical being instead of just an ordinary human. She was a little unhappy with the surroundings though, she expected the gardens and walls to be bright and alive but the stones were a dull gray and all of the plants were dead and dried out. Even if Hoggle didn't help her she probably could have just pushed her way through.

"Dunno, only Jareth knows that. You wished youself here; that was pretty stupid of you."

"I don't think so, my life was so boring. Every day I woke up and went to a pointless, meaningless job staring into space and then I would go home and spend my time reading or daydreaming the time away. It was a hollow existence; I enjoy reading and daydreaming and such but that's really all I had going for me." Kiara kicked a few stones around as she walked trying to decide if she really wanted to get out of this coma. Sure the place was dark and gloomy, but there were fairies and dwarves and who knows what might be lurking around the corner. Hoggle didn't respond and they continued for awhile in silence.


	3. Jareth

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. As requested by a reviewer here is Jareth, if he is good he can stay out and play :). Thanks to my beta, phantom, for getting through the chapters so quickly when I am sure there are other things she should be focusing on. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 3: Jareth**

Meanwhile, at the castle, the goblin king was sitting on his balcony cursing the past twenty years of his life. He looked out into his decaying labyrinth angry with himself for not being able to do anything about it. It was all that wretched girl's fault, but he didn't know why. Many had come before her and many had defeated the labyrinth even with Jareth's interference. He seriously couldn't believe that just because he had feelings for that one that this would happen.

Jareth closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose while he tried to think of a solution. He felt the magic flowing through the labyrinth indicating that there was a new runner; she would be a powerful addition if she lost and possibly be a great witch. He shook his head in disgust at himself, there were no tricks up his sleeve or ways he could stop her. He knew that she would reach the castle and win her freedom. The labyrinth knew it as well; it was purposely allowing them the easiest possible passage.

He ground his teeth as he took a deep breath, an act that was getting more and more difficult with each passing day. He remembered what it was like several hours after Sarah had left, after he had promised her everything. If only he had realized that he what he was really giving up even if she didn't accept him. He remembered how he couldn't even spin his crystals and it only got worse from then on out. Flying or even changing into his owl form began to get more difficult, he felt really ill and then the labyrinth began to die. Jareth's own magic continued to fade until he couldn't even do the simplest spell. His body started deteriorating with the rest of the underground and now he couldn't even walk without his goblins assistance.

Jareth made a small noise that was probably the closest thing to a laugh the castle had heard in many years. He remembered the day that he found he could no longer get out of bed under his own power and even worse he couldn't kick the goblins into the bog. The goblins, always ready to appease their king, helped him to the balcony and let him watch as they kicked each other in. It brought a small smile to the king's face. He wanted to get back into his bed now; he had enough of gazing upon the horrible outcome of his broken heart. Jareth turned to see that there were no goblins in his room, not that it was unusual since he liked having privacy but at that moment it was incredibly inconvenient. He sighed knowing he would have to wait until lunch for someone to come in and help him get back to the bed.

Instead of wallowing in more self pity, Jareth turned his attention to the runner. He might not be able to use magic anymore in the normal sense, but being king still gave him the ability see any part of the labyrinth he chose. He could definitely sense now that she would be a powerful witch if she stayed in the labyrinth and worked hard and most likely she would keep her own body, at least most of it. Jareth decided that it would be a good thing if she looked the same since she was fairly attractive; not his usual tastes but after years of looking at goblins almost anything remotely human and female was attractive.

Jareth briefly wondered about what could have made her wish herself away in the first place. Most of the runners he saw were afraid or angry or at the very least they were upset with what was going on, this girl was different. Not only was she much older than the average runner by ten years, but she actually seemed happy to be there and not in the least bit worried.


	4. Meeting Didymus

**A/N Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks to my beta for going through everything for me.**

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**Chapter 4: Meeting Didymus**

Kiara was searching her mind for more conversation ideas as she and Hoggle navigated through the labyrinth. She could see the castle now and it was just as dark and dreary as everything else she had seen so far. "Is there any other life in this place? And is the castle haunted or something, it looks like something I'd expect to find if I was thrown into an evil witch's castle in a Disney movie."

Hoggle gave her an annoyed look before answering, "Of course there is, usually they like to terrorize visitors, but lately no one seems to care much." Hoggle looked up towards the castle and stopped walking for a bit, he needed a break and she had plenty of time. He got himself comfortable on a patch of dead grass before answering her next question, "The castle ain't haunted, but from what I hears it ain't got any magic left so everything is dying."

"Oh," Kiara said with a disappointed look, "I wished it was haunted instead." She pulled her knees into her chest and looked around sadly; if the magic was really gone then all too soon it would be no different than that of the aboveground. On the other hand, none of this was real anyway so did it really matter? Kiara mentally shook her head at her crazy thoughts; if she was going to be stuck in a dream world she would at least like it to be interesting. It would be a shame to waste a good coma dream being in a boring place.

Jareth's ability to see anywhere in the labyrinth did not include hearing everything, all he knew was that this girl was suddenly upset by something. He sighed again, thinking that Hoggle explained her situation and she must have realized how stupid she was to wish for something she really didn't want. When would these humans ever learn?

Kiara's thoughts were interrupted by a dog leaping over her and landing on Hoggle. At first she thought he was getting attacked until he heard that his screaming was more annoyed than afraid. "You mangy mutt, get off me!" Hoggle yelled as he pushed at the dog. The dog finally did and sat to the side waiting for his master who was currently running towards them. Kiara was shocked to see that it wasn't another dwarf or human, but instead its master was another dog and a smaller one at that.

"Ambrosious, how could you just run away like that and leave me alone to defend my honor?" The smaller dog saw Hoggle and Kiara and bowed deeply, "Ah Hoggle, my brother, who is this fair maiden with you?"

Kiara smiled and Hoggle rolled his eyes at the new arrival. "I'm Kiara, kind sir and who might you be?" She giggled to herself thinking she might have some fun in this labyrinth after all.

"I am Sir Didymus, my good lady. Are you heading towards the castle?"

"Yes, at least that what I guess I am supposed to do. I want to meet the Goblin King," Kiara answered excitedly.

"Oh, you are not trying to reclaim someone you wished away?"

"I wished myself away and not really, I just think it would be great to meet the king."

Didymus stood there a bit confused; he had never met another lady like this one before. He nodded and bid the two a good day, normally he would have loved to accompany them but he was still on duty and need to patrol the labyrinth. Kiara waved goodbye and stood up hoping that Hoggle was finished his break and ready to get started again.

As it turns out Hoggle was more than ready to get this day over with and vowed to never again spray the fairies that lived in the front of the labyrinth. He started making plans in his mind to move into his house near the center so that he would never have to deal with taking runners through again. They always asked the first person they saw for help and it was always him. He started walking towards the castle and Kiara fell in step next to him, during which time she started asking him a few questions about his life.

Hoggle gave one word answers if he spoke at all, he really didn't want to get friendly with another runner. It was bad enough that he was civil with Didymus, he didn't intend on attempting a new friendship. Anyway as far as Hoggle was concerned no one would ever want to be his friend. Sarah was the closest he ever got and she never called them up anymore. She called them a few times the first year after beating the labyrinth, but only when she was really upset about something and then they never heard from her again. They were just cast aside once she started to get some human friends. She grew up and stopped believing.

Kiara stopped trying eventually and kept to herself. She really wished Hoggle would talk to her because she really hated being inside of her own mind when she wasn't daydreaming, even then it could be bad. It was when she was alone in her thoughts that she would get herself depressed, but this time she was able to shake off any bad thoughts and instead enjoy the fact that she was having one of the best dreams of her life. The only thing she needed to make it perfect would be if she could fly.


	5. The Castle

**A/N Own Nothing, Thanks for the reviews and thank you phantom for betaing**

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**Chapter 5: The Castle**

Finally the castle was right in front of her, she only needed to walk up the stairs and open the front door. Hoggle stood at the base with her as she tried to soak in every detail. "Well I brought you here like I said I would; now you're on your own."

"Thank you Hoggle, how could I ever repay you?" Kiara looked at the dwarf with a grin; she couldn't wait to explore the castle.

"Well it would be nice to add something to my precious jewel collection if you got anythin'," Hoggle said as he looked down and touched his tangle of random assortments of jewelry.

"Sure, let me see what I have," Kiara checked to see if she had worn any jewelry that day and was sad to see the only thing she had on was a pair of dangly earring she had made herself. She took them off and held them out to Hoggle hoping that they would be good enough. He smiled as he looked them over and happily took them and added them to the bunch.

Kiara looked back to the castle and started up the stairs. Once inside she saw that the place looked just as empty and dead as the labyrinth did. She wandered around for a long while enjoying the feel of being in a castle even if it wasn't magical anymore or real. She wandered down a corridor and found the kitchen where there were a bunch of goblins getting lunch ready for the king. One of them saw her and handed her a tray with directions to his bedroom. Most of the goblins stayed away from him as much as possible lately. As he lost his magic he began to lose his temper more too, not that he really could do anything to them but magic or not they were afraid of their king when he was angry.

Kiara took the tray and thanked the goblin for the directions and began heading up several more staircases before coming to the door. After a few minutes of rearranging the tray she was able to hold it with one hand while she knocked on the door. She didn't hear an answer, but decided to crack open the door and peek in anyway. There was no one in the room so she walked in and placed the tray on the bedside table.

"What are you doing here?" an angry voice asked. Kiara jumped up and spun around to see someone sitting on the balcony.

"I came to bring you your lunch. Do you want it out there?" Kiara looked over the goblin king and was surprised to see he didn't look much like a king. She thought to herself that he probably would if he didn't look like someone with a horrible case of the flu, at least his voice commanded respect and obedience.

"No," Jareth looked over the girl debating on whether or not to ask for assistance back into the bedroom. It was obvious to him that his goblins were avoiding him on purpose and they would stay away for as long as they possibly could. He decided to try anyway and put all of his effort into standing; by the time he was up he was breathing heavily and Kiara could see he was having trouble. She came to his side and offered her shoulder which he gladly took.

Jareth attempted to walk on his own as much as possible, but was only able to get a few steps before putting the majority of his weight on the small girl. He was surprised to find out that though she looked underweight and maybe even slightly malnourished she showed no signs of having difficulty carrying him to the bed.

Kiara actually was finding it very difficult, but she was a stubborn woman. She kept her face as neutral as possible while she felt Jareth put more and more weight upon her. Her back was beginning to ache about half way through the room, but she absolutely refused to show it. She made a decision that she needed to lift more weights and get stronger.

Once Jareth was in the bed, Kiara put the tray in front of him and sat down on the edge next to him. His eyes narrowed at her wondering how she could possibly have the nerve to invite herself onto his bed, but she just continued to sit there and wait.

"So what happens now?" Kiara asked while Jareth began to eat, "I made it to the castle beyond the goblin city; do I really have to go back?"

Jareth looked at the girl strangely; no one had ever asked that question before. Everyone always wanted to go back no matter how much they thought they wanted a fairy tale life. Either they wished themselves away and wanted to go home or they were unwillingly to let the person they wished away be turned into something. "Yes, you need to go back to the aboveground. There is no longer any reason for someone like you to be here."

"Why, what's wrong with you and the labyrinth? I take it from the little I heard that it isn't supposed to look like this."

"No it isn't. My kingdom was once full of life and magic, but now…" Jareth looked away sadly and continued to eat. He wasn't sure why he was answering any of this girl's questions. She should be bowing to him or begging to be returned.

"Is there anything I can do to help? After all, it is my dream," Kiara looked at Jareth hoping that she would have something fun to do before she had to wake up and his sad expression deepened. It was too good to be true, it always was. The only reason she wasn't afraid was because she didn't believe it was real.

"It is not a dream and no there is nothing you could do even if you stayed. All that would happen is that you might become a witch and then have your magic drained from you until you died. Do you really want that?" Jareth's eyes blazed with rage that almost scared Kiara. She immediately shook her head and looked out the window sadly. Even if this wasn't real, it wasn't a nice thing to happen to all of those people out there. "Then go back to where you came from."


	6. Aboveground

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Love my two loyal reviewers. Keep it up or I'll lock Jareth up in his cage, hehe. ****Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 6: Aboveground**

Kiara shook her head again and went to explain that she had no clue how to do that even if she wanted to but the room began to blur around her and she found herself once again sitting in her cubicle with the book open in front of her. She looked at the clock to find that she had been asleep for two hours and it was a little past the time to go home. She gathered her belongings and headed out the door trying not to think of the dream world she had just left.

She was unsuccessful for the most part and small tears made their way down her face as she realized that her dream wasn't real. Sure while she was there she accepted that very fact, but now that she was fully awake she wished she wasn't dreaming. She wanted it to be real.

The next few days were hard on Kiara; she barely ate or got any sleep at all. Every time she laid her head down on the pillow she began to think about the labyrinth and how much she wanted to go back and try to help. Of course there was no possible way she could do that since there was no such thing as magic. Finally she did what people had been telling her to do for years and she made an appointment to see a psychiatrist. She really didn't want to have a repeat of attempted suicide and she could tell that with each passing minute she was getting closer to the breaking point. The people she worked with her becoming afraid of her because she had a dark look in her eyes and no one would speak to her, which actually was sort of a relief.

The labyrinth was actually having a good week. The morning after Kiara left Jareth got out of bed and started dressing himself before he realized what he was doing. He body ached something terrible afterwards and he almost regretted moving at all because of how weak it made him, but it was the first time he was able to do that in years. A couple days later a goblin stopped in to report that a flower had bloomed on the east side, in actuality it was a weed that a great many of the population were very allergic to, including Jareth, however it was the first new growth in almost twenty years and no one wanted to remove it.

Kiara walked into the psychiatrist's office feeling extremely embarrassed. She never told anyone about how much she needed to believe in her fantasy world before and she never intended too, but she wasn't sure how to get what she needed from this man if she didn't tell the truth. She took the seat in front of his desk and started fidgeting. She began to wonder how this man ever made it as a psychiatrist; she immediately disliked him sensing that he wouldn't really be understanding of her situation and probably would be judgmental no matter how much he would claim not to be.

"Miss Gairden," the doctor started, "I am Dr. Jacobson." Kiara nodded at the doctor starting to feel more and more anxious. It crossed her mind a few times that she would very much like to leave and to hell with the doctor. "Now I see here from your paperwork you filled out that you are feeling depressed, please tell me why." The doctor sat back in his chair with his notepad and pen and stared at the young woman.

Kiara shifted in her chair unsure of what to say, "Well, I hate life and reality. It doesn't interest me at all and that's why I've tried to harm myself on several occasions." She looked away and hoped that she wouldn't have to say much more. The doctor began scribbling in his notebook and began asking for more details. Kiara tried to say as little as possible and eventually had enough and wanted to leave. She was surprised when the doctor actually did prescribe some anti-depressants for her and set up their next visit for the next month.

Kiara pick up her prescription and debated on whether or not she would actually keep the next appointment. She twirled the bottle around in her hands and decided to wait to make that decision, she wasn't even sure that she wanted to use the pills. They sat on her kitchen counter waiting for her as she continued the week falling deeper.

By the end of the next week Kiara was at the snapping point, she left work early to run home and take the anti-depressants. She sat on her couch for the next several hours staring into nothingness; this was not the effect she was looking for. The thoughts still came to her, the realization of reality and she just continued to sit there. Days went by and she kept taking the pills hoping that she would adjust and the day didn't come.

After missing a full week of work because she couldn't be bothered to get off the couch Kiara decided she had enough and was going to end it there. She took a seat in front of her vanity table and looked at her reflection. Her auburn hair was not at all shiny like it usually was; instead it was greasy, dull and springing out in all directions. Her skin was very pale instead of the light tan she kept year round and her eyes looked bruised and bloodshot. She smiled at her reflection and laughed insanely as she picked up a dagger; it was decorated with sapphires and emeralds and polished to a bright shine. She remembered buying it from the man who told her to be very careful because it was one of the few he sold that was actually sharpened.

Kiara briefly considered the Princess Bride scene where the girl held the dagger to her chest where she would have just hit the ribcage instead of killing her. She shook her head and pointed the dagger straight at her stomach. With another smile she looked into the mirror and spoke, "Well Hoggle, if this works I will be coming back to join you soon." She took a breath and went to plunge the dagger into herself until she heard a voice.


	7. Sanity

**A/N Glad to see a new reviewer as well as loyal ones. This chapter is a bit longer, hope you enjoy. Own nothing that doesn't belong to me.**

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**Chapter 7: Sanity**

"Stop, don't do that!" Kiara looked up into the mirror and realized she was cracking up more than usual; Hoggle was looking at her through the mirror.

"Hoggle, why are you in my mirror?" Kiara put the dagger down and turned around to see that Hoggle was sitting on her bed, "How did you get there?"

"You called me, didn't ya," the dwarf answered. "Now let's be good and put the knife away."

Kiara picked up the dagger and looked at it her a moment before returning it to the box on her dresser. She shrugged and figured she might as well enjoy the delusion while it lasted. She came to the bed next to Hoggle and slowly touched him, he felt as real as anything else in the room did. "So what's going on in the labyrinth?"

"A weed grew last week, practically the whole underground went to go and see it." Hoggle began keeping a close eye on the girl, making sure that she wasn't going to do anything to hurt herself again.

"That's a good thing right? I mean if the whole underground was dead and something at least grew, it doesn't really matter that it was a weed."

"Yeah, that's what everyone else says too, although I hope something else grows as well. It would be really horrible for that weed to take over the labyrinth," Hoggle said with a grimace.

"Why? Is it not a very attractive plant or something?" Kiara began to feel a lot better and much saner since Hoggle showed up and she made a note to trash the rest of the pills, they obviously didn't do her any good at all. She almost laughed at herself, she really felt saner after seeing a figment of her imagination.

"It's not that bad lookin', but the problem is it makes everyone sick if there is too many of them around. Also I do lots of the gardening around the labyrinth and don't really likes to see too many weeds if I can help it," Hoggle answered as he began to relax. He started to feel like he was back in the good old days when Sarah used to call him up only it was much better. Sarah liked to discuss her problems which Hoggle was no good at; Kiara seemed to prefer a distraction from her problems instead which was just fine with him.

"Oh, I see then, so how is Didymus?" Kiara was back to feeling perfectly happy like she did when she was actually in the labyrinth and prayed that she didn't need to go to such extremes ever again to see Hoggle. Right then she didn't care if he was real or just a part of her imagination, all that mattered was he was there.

"I dunno, fine probably. He just keeps patrolling, but I dunno why. It isn't like anything is going on."

Kiara nodded, "If the labyrinth is blooming again, does that mean that Jareth is feeling better?"

Hoggle shrugged, "I didn't know anything was wrong with him although I suppose it would make sense. If that's the case then he probably is."

Kiara smiled at the dwarf and noticed that she was incredibly hungry, "Do you want some dinner? I can order something and we could just hang out." She really hoped that Hoggle would hang around and keep her company.

"Actually I'm needing to get back to the labyrinth. The whole kingdom is going nuts a bit trying to get more things to grow and the fairies are wreaking havoc on the west side. So if you're alright now…" Hoggle trailed off not sure if he should bring up the reason he was summoned.

Kiara bent over and gave Hoggle a quick hug, he was stunned at first but then made an annoyed noise and pushed her away. She laughed, "Thank you Hoggle, you are a really good friend."

"Friend?" Hoggle almost couldn't believe that he was being called that again, some people just didn't get him. He pushed the good, warm feelings away and waved off the comment as he walked towards the vanity and disappeared as he reached the mirror.

Kiara lifted herself off of the couch and ordered some Chinese food and found a movie to watch while she sat contently on her couch. Real or not, she liked having someone watching out for her. She went to work the next week and tried desperately to explain to her boss about her absences, but it was too late and she was marked down as abandoning her job. She started job hunting right away but didn't have any luck finding anything she wanted to do making a decent pay. She thanked her stars she was good at saving and had enough to last a while.

In the meantime, Jareth was trying to figure out what caused the new life in the labyrinth and why it wasn't repeating itself. The one weed which everyone began to practically worship started to wilt and the creatures of the kingdom began to lose their hope once again. Jareth had goblins bring him many of his books from the library so that he could attempt to find the answer. Something must have changed in his kingdom in order to bring about new growth, but what? Finally Jareth had Hoggle brought in, as the kingdom's gardener and general handyman he should know the coming and goings of the labyrinth best. At least, that was what Jareth thought.

Hoggle came into Jareth's bedroom expecting to see the king he used to be deeply afraid of and instead was shocked to see a sickly, bedridden young man. Most of his strong muscles had deteriorated and his lack of appetite over the past twenty years made him too thin. His eyes although tired looking were still fierce and his gaze made Hoggle feel the fear he once had. "Hogbrain, I need to know what caused the weed to bloom."

"I dunno, I didn't do anything to it," Hoggle answered as he stepped towards Jareth who was quickly becoming irritated.

"Hogwash, something must have changed in order for this to happen. Tell me anything that it could possibly be." Jareth began massaging his forehead as he tried to keep from losing his temper at the small dwarf.

"The only thing I know of is that girl was here a few days before it happened. Unless someone from another kingdom put something in the river or something that I don't know about."

Jareth's eyes grew wide. Of course it could very possibly have been the girl; she had magic radiating from her from the moment she set foot into the labyrinth. He needed to find a way to get her back, but how? He contemplated this while Hoggle stood there looking uncomfortable. Jareth looked at him carefully, "Good Hogwart, now think of a way to get her back here to test that theory."

"Um, well you can't make her wish for anything and we can't go there unless she calls. Maybe we can just try waiting until she calls for one of us."

Jareth glared at Hoggle, "Only Sarah has the power to do that." Jareth shut his eyes, it may have been twenty years but that was almost nothing to a fae. It still hurt him to think her name. He knew that she would be much older now and was probably happy with another family, but he didn't know and neither did anyone else.

"Uh, actually the little lady called me just the other night when she was…. Well… never mind." Hoggle shut his mouth realizing he almost told him something he was sure that Kiara would not have wanted him to share with anyone.

"When she was what?" Jareth asked as he looked into one of his crystals. He tried to make more appear as he waited for the answer; it didn't work so instead he had to make do with what he already had.

"She was upset and she called for me," Hoggle said carefully.

Jareth shook his head trying to figure out how a lowly human could gain that type of power without him specifically giving it to her. He had given Sarah powers, but for the most part she had been oblivious to them. "Well spread the word that if she calls for anyone again that she must be brought back to the underground. We must find out if she can help."

Hoggle nodded and backed out the door wondering when the little lady would call for him next. There was no way for him to get a message to her as far as he knew and Jareth would most likely have mentioned it if there was a way. He headed out the castle doors to find Didymus, the only other person Kiara had met on the journey.


	8. Return

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks for the reviews, they make me smile and thank you to my beta. Enjoy!**

**____________________________________________________________________________________**

**Chapter 8: Return**

Kiara would have summoned for Hoggle sooner, but she honestly didn't know how. She pretended to stab herself a few more times when she wanted to talk to him, but he never appeared. After a few weeks of wondering how she made the illusion appear she almost sent herself back into the depression, however this time she kept her head and decided that Hoggle was just very busy in the labyrinth and that even imaginary creatures have to take care of business.

Finally one night Kiara sat in front of her mirror brushing her hair and said the words out loud that had only been said in her head the past month, "Hoggle, I wish you would visit again. I need you." She put the brush down and turned around to see Hoggle back on the bed where he was the last time he visited. "Hoggle!" she cried and jumped on the bed next to him, "I am so glad you came, I was waiting for you for weeks hoping you would return."

Hoggle looked at her confused, "All you had to do was call for me."

Kiara stared at the little man for a few moments before lightly smacking her hand to her forehead, "Really, that was all. I've been trying for weeks and all I had to do was actually speak your name out loud. Anyway, any news on the weed?" She bounced a bit on the bed excited to have her new friend back for a visit.

"It died, but Jareth actually wanted me to bring you back whenever and if you ever called for me again. He thinks you might be the reason it grew in the first place."

"Me? That's ridiculous; just ask any of my houseplants that have died over the years."

Hoggle shrugged, "Well I's instructed to bring you back with me. So come on, Jareth wants you."

Kiara thought about it for a moment and held onto Hoggle's hand as they walked towards the mirror. She wondered if she would just bang her knee on it and wake up the next morning with a large bruise, but she went right through and found herself outside of Hoggle's house.

"I guess Jareth'll be wantin' to see you. You better head there now," Hoggle said and he pointed towards the entrance to the goblin city. Kiara smiled anxiously at Hoggle wishing that he would come with her and headed towards the city. She hoped that if she ever came back that the place would look more alive, but sadly it looked even worse. She found her way through easily and headed into the castle and up the stairs, unfortunately she didn't remember the way correctly and took a wrong turn into the Escher room.

"Wow!" she exclaimed as she saw the various staircases in all directions. She wished she had time to walk around and see it more, but she headed back and found the correct path towards Jareth's room. She lightly knocked on the door wondering if he would be asleep, it was dark out and the clock said it was 13:00. Kiara looked back at the clock in disbelief and laughed, it really said 13:00. She heard an angry yell from inside and opened the door slightly and crept in.

"What do you want?" Jareth yelled. He couldn't see who had woken him and for the most part he really didn't care why. It had been hard for him to fall asleep the past couple nights and when he finally managed to get some rest a goblin just has to knock at the door. He was about to yell some more when he noticed that the creature was much too tall to be one of his goblins and he waited until she was much closer to say anything more.

"I'm sorry Jareth; I was told you wanted to see me and I didn't realize there was a time difference between our worlds." Kiara moved slowly hoping to not anger the Goblin King anymore than he already was. If she hoped to stay in this world she knew that there were certain people she would have to keep happy and he was most definitely one of them.

"How did you get here again? I didn't feel anyone wish themselves away."

"No, I didn't do that again, I called for Hoggle and he brought me down. Although I think it's crazy that you think I could make one little weed grow by just being here."

Jareth looked at the young woman and tried to see if he could sense the magic he saw before. After a few minutes he began to smirk and found that he was right, she would be very powerful if she knew what she was capable of. "It was more than that; after you visited I was able to get out of bed for the first time in ten years. You are the only thing that had changed; we must try and see if it works again."

"Alright, what do you want me to do?" Kiara sat in the chair next to Jareth's bed and waited for him to think of how they should proceed.

"Go and summon some of my goblins, have them brings pots of dirt gathered from random places in the labyrinth and brought to my chambers. You will spend the next couple nights with me and we will see if that makes a difference."

"Spend the night with you? I am not sleeping with you." Kiara looked at the king with disgust. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, but she barely knew him.

Jareth rolled his eyes. "Sleep next to me, not with me. I don't really want to share my bed with you either, but if you being close makes me strong then I will do it."

"Hmm, thanks, glad to see I repulse you and much as you repulse me," Kiara said with a smirk. Jareth almost didn't pick up the sarcasm and went to say something angrily until he saw her expression. He put on a smirk to mask hers and gestured for her to leave and do as she was told.

In less than an hour the room was filled with many different colored flower pots of all sizes. Kiara laughed at the thought of her presence actually doing anything, but if they wanted her to stay there to try then she would. Jareth waited for her in the bed and she hesitantly got in next to him. She wasn't sure if she had the right to tell a king no, but decided to make it very clear anyway, "Rule number one: keep your hands to yourself."

Jareth's lips turned into a half smile, something that they weren't used to doing anymore, "Rule number one should be that you obey my every command and show some respect for your king."

"But I am not one of your subjects, at least not yet." Kiara smiled happily and turned to face away from Jareth as she fell asleep. Jareth sat and watched her for quite some time before his eyes began to close on their own and he ended up having the best night sleep in twenty years.


	9. Gardening

**Chapter 9: Gardening**

The next morning, Kiara woke up feeling very happy. She opened her eyes to see that she was still in Jareth's bedroom in the castle and was even more surprised when she felt his arm tightly around her waist. She tried to wiggle out of it, but he wouldn't let go. She wasn't sure how such a sick man could hold on so tightly, but eventually she gave up trying to be nice about and gave him a good push.

Jareth opened his eyes and saw that he was face to face with an angry woman. The events of the night before slowly came back to him and he scowled as he removed his arm from her body. He didn't remember doing that and assumed that he would have done it to anyone that slept next to him. Her angry expression softened and she smiled at him asking if he wanted breakfast. He was going to decline since normally he felt the worst in the mornings and therefore unable to eat anything, but that morning he found that he didn't feel weak at all. He nodded and the girl left to get them both something to eat.

While she was gone, Jareth decided to try and see if he could stand again like the last time. He took a deep breath noticing that it he didn't feel the extreme weight on his chest anymore and used his bedside table to help him stand. He was up; his head was spinning and he was becoming slightly nauseous, but he was standing on his own power. He made his way towards his dresser and picked out clothes for the day and headed back towards the bed. His muscles were sore, but he felt happier than he had in a long while. He knew he had found the answer. The flower pots were not showing any signs yet of growth, but he was ready to give it some more time.

Kiara came back through the door and found Jareth in the middle of dressing himself. She made a small embarrassed yell and turned away, "Oh, Jareth I am sorry. I should have knocked, I wasn't thinking."

Jareth continued to get dressed and then laid himself back upon the bed, "I was able to walk to my dresser today; the test was a complete success. There is something about you that is bringing life back into the labyrinth."

"Now if only you found a way to keep it here permanently," Kiara said as she laid the tray across Jareth's lap. He gave her a questioning look and she continued with the thoughts she had earlier. "Well I was thinking as I was getting breakfast; you said that me being here made you strong for that one day and caused one flower to grow. However, as soon as I left everything began to die again. Now what I would like to know is it just me being in the labyrinth in general or do I need to be in every specific place to make it grow?"

Jareth stared at the young woman trying to figure out exactly what she was asking. She noticed his confusion and tried to ask her question differently. "Would you still stay strong if I spent the night with Hoggle or would you lose your power again because I am not right next to you? If I have to stay next to everything in the labyrinth to make it grow that might prove to be impossible. I would think that if it was just me being here then flowers would have popped up all over."

"On your last visit, did you spend any time where the last weed grew?" Jareth began to understand what she meant and she was right. It would be easy if she just had to stay in the labyrinth to bring it back, but if proximity was a factor then it would only buy them more time.

"Yeah, I asked a goblin where it was and it sounds like it grew in the same area where Hoggle and I sat down to take a break when I was originally on my way here," Kiara glanced into one of the flower pots, "It doesn't look like I was able to do it again though."

Jareth shook his head, "No, the weed was found a few days after you left. You may have just got it started. You are free to wander the labyrinth with Hogwart as your guide, but I will expect you to be back tonight."

"His name is Hoggle and thanks. I was worried I would be stuck in this room all… I'm sorry," Kiara's eyes shut with embarrassment as she realized that Jareth was actually stuck in the room. He looked unhappy, but let it pass. "Do you want to go out to your balcony? It looks like a nice day." He slowly nodded and Kiara helped him up again and walked with him to his miniature balcony throne. He didn't put as much weight on her as he did last time and she smiled encouragingly noting his improvement. Once he was settled, Kiara left to find some new clothes and headed towards Hoggle's house.

Hoggle was pulling up the dead grass all around his small shack and attempting to plant something, hoping that Kiara's presence would make it grow. She came up behind him and watched for a few seconds before speaking, "Hey Hoggle, what are you doing?"

"I's clearing the way for my new garden to grow. If Jareth is right I want to have my yard back in working order." Hoggle continued to work and Kiara shrugged as she knelt down to help him. There was a lot of dried up dead grass just waiting to be pulled up and it took until mid afternoon to get the area ready for new seeds.

"Ok, now what do we do?" Kiara was exhausted after all that work and was genuinely surprised to see Hoggle still going strong. Looks can be deceiving, she thought that Hoggle was much older and not in any real condition to do such hard, long work, but there he was.

Hoggle stood back up and surveyed the area, he was glad to have the help although he just chalked it up to her being bored and not because she wanted to be with him. "You don't have to help me, you know." He headed into the shack and a few minutes later brought out a few sandwiches, "Here have something. Next I's got to plant something although I ain't sure of what yet." He brought out a few bags of seeds and Kiara pointed out the ones she liked best. She didn't expect him to only use her opinion, but he put the ones she didn't care for back and went back to work.

Kiara found that when it came to the planting there wasn't much she could do to help. Hoggle was extremely careful about exactly where each seed went and everything was exactly even. She sat and watched in silence happy that for once she was able to enjoy it. It was getting dark before Hoggle was done and she decided that she had better get back to the castle while there was enough light for her to figure out where she was going. "I've got to go now Hoggle; do you think tomorrow you could show me something interesting in the labyrinth?"

Hoggle just shrugged not really interested on being a tour guide, but the little lady did help him so he guessed that he owed her a favor, "Sure." She smiled and waved before turning to head towards the castle. She surprised herself with how easy it was for her to find her way, even if technically she wasn't in the maze part of the labyrinth anymore she expected it to be difficult to navigate. She knocked on Jareth's door and found that he was still sitting on the balcony.


	10. Courtyard

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks to my reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

**_______________________________________________________________________________**

**Chapter 10: Courtyard**

"You know a lady like you shouldn't have to spend the day in the dirt," Jareth said as Kiara sat on the chair next to him. She squinted and strained her eyes as best as she could, but she couldn't see as far as Hoggle's house.

"How did you know what I was doing? I cleaned up before I came in here."

"I can see anything in the labyrinth, I am king after all."

"Oh, does that mean you are feeling better today?" Kiara looked at the king and began to worry that he was wrong about her even if he did happen to feel better that morning. His breathing was heavy and he looked exhausted.

"I was until a few hours after you left. It seems you idea was correct and you need to stay close." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. He had been stuck on the balcony all day and was beyond irritated at his goblins. They all assumed that she was his new assistant and therefore none of them needed to disturb him anymore.

"Oh, why do you stay in here? You would probably feel better if you went out and around the city a bit."

Jareth looked at the girl angrily before answering, "And how exactly would I do that? You have seen I can barely walk a few steps and I can only do that when you are around."

"Haven't you ever heard of a wheelchair?" Kiara rolled her eyes at the man and tried to be as understanding as possible, it couldn't be easy to be in his situation. She waited for an answer that never came, she turned to find that he was looking at her strangely and she almost laughed at him. "You really haven't? It's a chair with wheels for people that can't walk. We can get you one and I will take you out and around the labyrinth."

Jareth looked intrigued at the idea for a moment but then shook his head, "I do not wish to look weak to my subjects, only a select few have been allowed in my chambers since…" He looked away for a few seconds and then stared out towards the labyrinth. Kiara sighed thinking that if she finished the book then she might have a better idea of what was going on here.

"I think you look weaker hiding in your tower. They say you haven't even appeared to a runner in fifteen years; that doesn't make you seem weak?" Jareth shifted uncomfortably knowing that she was right, but he was a king and would not admit his mistakes. He didn't speak again for the rest of their time outside. Kiara offered to help him back to the bed and he went, still in silence. Before she fell asleep, Kiara felt the need to apologize. She just couldn't go to sleep feeling bad about hurting Jareth, even if it was the truth. "I'm sorry if I said something to upset you, your highness, I'll keep my thoughts to myself." She turned and quickly fell asleep snuggled into the most comfortable bed she had ever been in.

Jareth didn't get much sleep that night, for whatever reason he just wasn't comfortable in his bed. He almost woke the girl up a few times just so that he would have someone to talk to. It wasn't until then that he realized how lonely the past few years had been. Sure he had his goblins, but lately they avoided him and never stayed longer than they needed too. He missed when then they would dance and sing and they loved to be near him. With a sigh he tried once again to close his eyes, maybe he would one day get back to that old life.

Over the course of the night, small seedlings sprouted in all of the pots in Jareth's room. Kiara kept looking back from one to the next in amazement. They grew pretty fast in her opinion, but she didn't have any clue what they might be. When Jareth woke up she showed him one pot and he looked at it happily. "Can you tell what it is?"

"Well what did the goblins plant in the pots?"

Kiara shook her head, "You should have been more specific with your orders; you only told them to bring dirt, not to plant anything in them."

"Hmm, well we will have to wait and find out won't we." Despite having a rough night sleep, Jareth found himself in a fairly good mood again that morning. He was hoping that Kiara would spend the day with him, but he refused to ask her or even demand it and look needy. Kiara got herself dressed and told him that she would be back by dark.

"Do you need anything before I head out?" Kiara asked as she tied her hair up. Jareth shook his head and Kiara went out the door and began the short journey once again towards Hoggle's house. She wasn't sure what she wanted to see in the labyrinth, but she hoped that he would know of something she might be interested in.

Hoggle was in his garden again when she arrived and she sat down nearby and watched for awhile. She did want to go and have a look around, but decided not to interfere with his daily activities. Eventually he looked up at her, "So where do you want to go?" He continued to work while they decided where he would take her.

"I don't know; I haven't a clue what's in the labyrinth. I only read the first few chapters of the book and I can't remember anything that was on the map." Kiara tried to remember anything on the map that might have been interesting to see. Hoggle got up and gestured for her to follow. "Where are we going?"

"There is a nice garden, well it was a nice garden, towards the center of the labyrinth. It's got a fountain and some statues, you might like it." Kiara originally thought that the castle was in the center of the labyrinth, but now realized she was wrong. She probably could have figured that out earlier with one look from Jareth's balcony, but she didn't really think about it.

"That sounds great." It didn't take very long for them to get there and Hoggle even commented on how the labyrinth was actually behaving itself and helping them. "How can the labyrinth help us get there?"

"Well, usually it likes to rearrange itself so the runners get confused and get lost. Today and the last time you was here it was behaving itself, it might like you." Kiara laughed at the thought, it was just a maze right? It was just a pile of bricks and stone with some hedges in between, how could it like her?

Hoggle was right and Kiara did like the little courtyard. There were statues all around the outside of the past kings and queens of the labyrinth, each with a small inscription with the name and year of birth and death. At first Kiara was concerned that they were actually in a graveyard, but Hoggle shook his head and assured her that the royal tomb was miles away.

She inspected each one carefully and then sat by the fountain. She was sad that it wasn't working, but it was still beautiful to look at. It had several mermaids jumping out of where the water should be and one princess mermaid at the very top. Kiara smiled and looked at Hoggle, "Are there real mermaids in the labyrinth?"

"No, not in the labyrinth. There isn't enough water for them, but there are mermaids over in the next kingdom."

Kiara sat there for a long while enjoying the sights until it was obvious that Hoggle wanted to get back and continue gardening. She got up and thanked him for the mini-tour and walked with him back home. She was just thankful that he didn't decide to leave her there by herself or anything. She wondered how she would ever find her way if she truly did get lost.


	11. Through the Looking Glass

**Chapter 11: Through the Looking Glass**

Jareth was once again waiting for her back at the castle as she brought up his dinner. She noticed the seedlings had grown even more during the day and Jareth was still in a fair mood. He had a book open and barely noticed her arrival until she put the tray down beside him, "Hungry?"

He looked up and nodded, "Yes, I was really hoping to find an answer in this book, but so far no luck." Kiara was shocked that he was randomly telling her this, but nodded and waited for him to continue. "I can't find anything like this anywhere. The underground has been around too long for anything to be a first."

"So no place has ever lost their magic before?"

"No, at least none that I can find. Fae have lost their magic, but I haven't found anything about the entire kingdom dying. Also fae usually only lose their magic when their mate dies and I do not have one of those." Jareth's appetite dissipated at he continued to vent his frustrations. He poked at his dinner for awhile and then pushed it to the side. He couldn't think about eating when his entire kingdom was in danger of dying out. Kiara sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Jareth to either continue to vent or tell her to do something, but neither happened. Jareth went back to the book and Kiara moved to the chair and wondered what she could do while she waited.

"Do you mind if I explore the castle a bit?" Kiara asked hopefully.

"Yes I mind, you are here to restore my power so here you will stay." Jareth's good mood had completely vanished and Kiara was starting to get annoyed with the Goblin King.

"Can I get something from my apartment at least to occupy my time?"

"No." He wasn't sure why he was being so cruel to the girl who was actually willing to help him, but being angry at her made him feel better.

Kiara scowled at the king and said extremely quietly to herself, "I just want to go back for a few minutes." Jareth didn't hear her speak, but something made him look up in surprise and she saw the room blur again. When the world came back into focus she found herself lying on her bed in the middle of the day. She wasn't sure how she did it or if she could even get back, but just in case she packed a small bag with yarn and a crocheting needle. Now she was prepared if she could get herself back, but before she was ready to try she decided to take a hot shower and get some normal food in her.

Jareth could only watch as the girl disappeared from castle. He felt her magic dissipate and knew that she returned herself to the aboveground. He cursed her power and tried to figure out how she knew how to control her coming and goings to the labyrinth. Afterwards, he cursed himself for ignoring her while she was there. He tried to sleep to make the night go by faster and once again found himself to be very uncomfortable.

Once Kiara was clean and full she went back to her mirror, holding her bag and spoke to herself, "I want to go back into the labyrinth." She wasn't sure why she thought that would work, but it was the best idea she had. She tentatively put her hand to the mirror and it went right through. "Haha, just call me Alice, now let's find the wonderland." She laughed at her terrible attempt at a joke and stepped through finding herself back in Jareth's bedroom.

Jareth was still awake, but very tired when he heard the sound of someone come into the room. He sensed a magical presence and quickly opened his weary eyes. Kiara was standing there looking around and trying to figure out how it got so dark down there so quickly. She climbed into the bed not noticing that Jareth was awake and tried to fall asleep; she wasn't really tired yet, but she there wasn't enough light to crochet and she didn't want to wake Jareth.

With a content smirk on his face, Jareth closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again. He was glad that he didn't push her away forever and that she returned so quickly. He turned to his side hoping that the next day would find an answer to all of his problems.

Sadly, the next day didn't bring any answers. Instead it brought a new, small problem. Jareth woke up with a headache and was completely congested; he opened his eyes feeling very confused. As a fae, it was rare for him to get sick and he was sure that he wasn't in contact with any goblins that might have spread anything to him. He sneezed once and sat up looking around his room and finding his answer. Every flower pot he had brought in was overgrown with the same weed that grew before.

Another sneeze woke up Kiara who looked around lazily. She jumped out of bed and went to one of the flowers and breathed in its sweet scent. "Look Jareth, something grew and they are so pretty. I would love to have a plant like this in my apartment, add some color to the place." He looked at her like she was crazy and rolled his eyes. The petals on the flowers were blue and purple swirls and green in the middle. She looked around the room some more noticing that almost everything was lightly covered in the green pollen. "It's kind of a messy plant to have though isn't it?"

"No one in their right mind would… would… ahh-choo… have this weed grow in their home." Jareth's eyes were beginning to water and he clumsily tried to clear them.

"Ah, so this is the weed. Hmm, it's a shame I really like the way it looks. It smells good too," Kiara said as she inhaled its scent again. The pollen didn't seem to bother her at all. She sat back on the bed and looked at Jareth for a few minutes. It was becoming more and more obvious that he needed to get out of the room until the plants could be removed and the room could be cleaned of all the pollen. "Does everyone in the labyrinth react like this?"

Jareth nodded as he sneezed a few more times, "Not just the labyrinth, but almost everyone in the entire underground. We tried to get rid of it, but it always comes back."

"Well let's get you out into the fresh air and I'll find something to clean this up with since it doesn't bother me." He nodded and grabbed a handkerchief off his side table. His vision was blurring the more his eyes watered so Kiara had a harder time than usual helping him to walk. She sat with him for a minute to make sure he would be ok.

Jareth was annoyed that breathing through his nose had become impossible and found himself a bit embarrassed at his state when he was in front of the girl. He knew it was silly, especially since he was a king and should never be embarrassed about anything. She smiled at him and looked out into the goblin city to see if she could see anything else growing. He shook his head at himself and started wiping his nose and eyes with the handkerchief. As soon as he got it close he began to sneeze uncontrollably and Kiara looked over worriedly for a second and then almost laughed at him.

Kiara grabbed the handkerchief away from him and soon he was able to stop and relax. "Silly king, didn't you look at this before you picked it up, it's covered in pollen. I'll go and try to find you a clean one." Jareth watched her for a second and turned back pinching the bridge of his nose. He hated feeling foolish and he also hated the new feelings he was having for this girl. It wasn't love like when he had first seen Sarah; it was different, he just liked having her around even though he wasn't really acting like it.

Kiara went through a few drawers before finding the one that had the black, glittery handkerchiefs in them. She laughed noticing that most of his wardrobe was glittery including his black silk boxers. A smirk found its way onto her face as she tried to pretend that she didn't just go through his underwear drawer, she giggled to herself thinking she was being really childish.

"Here you go, this one should work much better for you," Kiara said as she handed him the handkerchief. She sat back down again as she thought about how she should start cleaning the room. The castle wasn't the cleanest place in the world and probably didn't have any pledge wipes or windex. She debated trying to go aboveground again to get some supplies since it worked before.

Jareth tried again at drying his eyes and was relieved when he could see again. He looked at the girl beside him annoyed that she wasn't cleaning already, "Get to work."

"Sorry, I'm just trying to make a list in my head of everything I'll need to get while I'm aboveground. I'm glad my bills are all set up for automatic payments or I would be worried about that, of course I don't have a job anymore so I should be worried about how much money is left in my account." Kiara continued to think not totally aware that she was thinking out loud.

"I don't want to hear about your problems, now why do you need to… ahh-choo… go aboveground anyway," Jareth said as he glared at her.

"Do you want to have this place cleaned properly, your majesty? I am sure if I used your goblin's methods of cleaning then it wouldn't make a damn difference," Kiara was beginning to get annoyed at him again. She kept trying to tell herself that he was a king and technically she was a peasant and she was not exactly playing the part.

"It's about time you began calling me that. I'll have no more of your inappropriate behavior, now do as I command," Jareth yelled as he pointed to the room.

Kiara stood up and looked at him angrily, "I am not one of your subjects that you can order around and don't you forget that I can leave anytime I want and leave your kingdom to rot in hell."

Jareth's eyes narrowed and his expression turned harsh, more often than not anyone in the labyrinth would run from him about now, but this girl simply returned the stare and did not back down, "I command you to clean that room."

"Fine, I'll start with your bedding," she replied angrily; she went back into the room and grabbed the top cover off of the bed. Jareth watched as she came back towards him with the blanket with an evil expression on her face. He raised an eyebrow wondering what she was doing when she began to shake it out next to him blowing all of the pollen into his face.

"Just what… ah-choo… do you thi-… ah-ah-ah-choo… think you are doing?"

"I'm cleaning, what does it look like? I want to go home," Kiara threw the covers down and watched the world turn into a blur, reforming into her kitchen. She sat down at her table and put her head in her hands, "Why does that man make me so angry?" She really liked being in the labyrinth and hanging out with Hoggle and strangely enough she occasionally enjoyed being with Jareth.


	12. Talks

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

**_________________________________________________________**

**Chapter 12: Talks**

Kiara slowly shook her head and went to her computer to find herself a job. She spent too much of the past while living in a fantasy and she had real life things to take care of. She happened to find an actual non-scam work at home position for a man who just started his own business. She applied and sat down on her couch; she needed some time to turn off her thoughts for awhile.

Jareth almost didn't notice her leave, he was too busy trying to wipe at his eyes when he noticed the lack of magic near him. He glanced up and saw that Kiara had gone; a quick mental feel of the castle confirmed that her magic had completely vanished and she had returned aboveground once again. Also once again, Jareth was not sure if she would come back. He knew he really pissed her off this time and while generally he didn't care about anyone else's feelings, this girl was important to his survival.

Jareth tried as hard as he could to create a crystal and after much effort a small one appeared in his hand. It didn't have much power, but he was able to use it to send a message to the goblins that he needed a cleaning crew to his room immediately. The goblins were surprised to find the room covered in the horrible weed and began burning everything in the room. Naturally this was not what Jareth had in mind when he asked them to clean, but what did he expect when he was dealing with idiotic goblins? He frowned at himself regretting that he just didn't let the girl get what she needed from the aboveground.

Over the next week the Goblin King began to feel any extra strength he gained to drain from him and he was worse off than before Kiara visited. Hoggle was upset that only some of his garden was growing. He did his best to maintain the plants that were sprouting, but without Kiara's influence he knew it wouldn't last very long.

Kiara ended up getting the job and actually enjoyed making boring spreadsheets at home. She found it much easier to hide books from her boss when he wasn't anywhere near her, also this new boss actually realized that the tasks he gave her didn't take very long. She finished up the day's work and looked over at her mirror. Should she call for Hoggle? Maybe she should call for Jareth and they could talk out their problems. She would rather talk to Hoggle.

"Hoggle? Can I talk to you?" Kiara had her eyes closed and almost didn't want to open them for fear that it didn't work. She peeked one open and saw a confused Hoggle staring back at her. She turned around with a smile and gave him a hug which he immediately tried to resist.

"Get off, now what do you want?" Hoggle had his arms crossed and was waiting to hear what was wrong now.

Kiara smiled knowing that Hoggle was most likely not really angry with her, "I missed you. I'm sorry I left the labyrinth, but Jareth was driving me crazy. I wanted to see you again and see what you were up to."

Hoggle raised an eyebrow, he had expected there to be something wrong since that seemed to be the only reason anyone ever called for him. "Well, I'd like you to come back and make my plants grow. Since you left everything went back to dying."

"Really? I'm sorry; I shouldn't have been so selfish, I was just mad at Jareth. I guess I should go back; I was going to call Jareth up so that we could talk. Do you think that would be a good idea?"

Hoggle shrugged, "I doubt anything will work with Jareth, but you go right ahead. I brought you something that did manage to grow in my garden." He handed her a small pot with the purple and blue swirled flower in it. "I was gonna destroy it, but I heard a goblin say you liked it so I saved you one."

Kiara took the plant and smiled, "Oh Hoggle that was really nice of you, doesn't having this around bother you? I'll go put it in the other room." She ran from the bedroom and found it a nice space by the kitchen window. Once she was happy with the spot she ran back to the bedroom and took her seat on the bed.

"Those things don't bother me as much as they do for the rest of them."

"Well I know Jareth couldn't stand it at all. I threw a bunch of pollen in his face right before I left," Kiara admitted as she buried her head in her hands. Hoggle began to laugh at that and Kiara looked at him with a fake angry expression.

"The fae have it the worst with those plants. I think those of us that weren't actually born underground have a better tolerance for it, but no matter what it's annoying and grows anywhere and tries to take up space in my garden." Hoggle shook his head thinking about how hard it is for him every year to get all of the weeds cleared out of the labyrinth.

"You weren't born underground?

"No, I was wished away a couple hundred years ago. I don't even remember being human." Hoggle immediately shut his mouth; he never told anyone that before and instantly regretted telling her that now.

"Oh," was Kiara's response. She vaguely got the idea that Hoggle really didn't want to continue that conversation. "I am ordering up a pizza, would you like to stay for some?"

"Nah, I don't really like much aboveground food." Hoggle began to get antsy staying still for too long and soon they said goodbye and Hoggle went back through the mirror. Kiara pulled her knees into her chest and rocked for a few minutes before deciding to call Jareth up.


	13. Deal

**Chapter 13: Deal**

"Alright Kiara, you are a twenty-seven year old woman and you need to act like it," she said to herself before turning to the mirror. "Jareth, I want to talk to you," Kiara waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened so she tried again, "Goblin King? Can you please come here?"

"I am not like the mindless dwarf, you cannot call me up here whenever you please," said a voice behind her. Kiara turned and saw the king lying on her bed. She pulled her chair up next to him and smiled.

"Well it seems that I can, since I just did." Right then the doorbell rang and Kiara got up to pay for the pizza and put it on her kitchen table. She came back in and looked at Jareth, "Do you like pizza?" He nodded, "Great, I will get out some plates and stuff and then come back for you." Kiara hurriedly cleaned up her living room and kitchen and made the table look presentable. When she headed back to the room she almost ran in Jareth who was leaning against the door, breathing heavily and looking like he was going to collapse. "You couldn't wait two more minutes for me?"

Jareth tried to glare at her, but instead needed to concentrate on staying upright. Kiara put her arm around his waist and helped him to the table. He closed his eyes trying to find the magic she radiated, but couldn't sense anything at all. He looked at her curiously; aboveground she could only call upon them, but underground she could potentially have the power to do everything Jareth could.

They sat down and looked at each other in silence for a few minutes. "I hope you like pepperoni," Kiara started nervously. Jareth nodded and took a small bite. "Listen, I am sorry for just running off, but I got really angry with the way you just ordered me around."

"I am the king; it is my job to command."

"Fine, but you need to understand that I am there to help and I won't take that kind of shit when I can just leave." Kiara sighed when Jareth didn't answer and began to eat her dinner.

Jareth considered her words while he looked around her apartment. He decided that it was much less than she deserved and not at all what he expected. Sarah's bedroom was cluttered with toys, dolls and books with barely a space to walk. Kiara's home had a few small fantasy themed paintings, but was generally uncluttered. One wall was filled with three bookshelves that was overstuffed with books, but other than that it was very neat.

He looked at all of the gadgets in her kitchen wondering what most of them did. He finally noticed a small flower that he was not happy to see, "You brought one of those things up here?"

Kiara glanced up at the plant Hoggle gave her and smiled, "No it was a present from one of your subjects. Is it bothering you? I can move it." Her smiled turned to a concerned look and she started to get up to take the plant onto the small balcony, but Jareth stopped her.

"Its fine, it's just one little one."

"Ok, if you're sure."

"After you finish your dinner you will come back with me to live in the labyrinth," Jareth began and was immediately cut off by Kiara.

"Hey, I can't just drop my life for you, I have a job now and unless you can get an internet connection to the underground I need to spend at least eight hours of the day up here."

Jareth massaged his forehead reminding himself that he needed this girl if he wanted to live to old age. "I can most likely get that for you. It should be a simple spell, but you will have to actually do it."

Kiara smiled, "I get to do magic?"

"What do you call bringing me to the aboveground?"

"That's different though. Ok then here is the deal: I will come back with you and you will show me how to establish an internet connection so that I can work. I will try my best to deal with your arrogant, evil kinglyness and you will try to teach me some other magic. How does that sound to you?" Kiara bit her lip as she waited for the answer.

"Fine, but you will show me the proper respect in front of the other goblins and in return I will allow you free time to wander the labyrinth."

"Agreed," Kiara put out her hand and Jareth slowly shook it. "The start of a beautiful friendship. Maybe I should have Hoggle build me a cute little cottage near his."

"Why would you want to do that? I will need you in the castle."

"Yeah, but it might be nice to actually have a place of my own instead of just sleeping in your bed and having the goblins find me someone else's clothing to wear. It would also make visiting Hoggle more convenient."

Jareth raised his eyebrows and looked questioningly at the girl, "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because he is my friend and I like talking to him. Why do you like to be around your friends?" Jareth shook his head slightly; he seemed to think her question was stupid. "What? Do you not have any friends?"

"Of course not, who would I be friends with? The cook?"

Kiara looked at the king sadly, "Aren't there any other fae in the labyrinth?"

"No, most of them can't even stand it long enough for a brief visit."

"Well, now you have me, it will be fun for me to be friends with the Goblin King." Kiara smiled to herself and finished up her pizza. When Jareth was done she quickly washed the dishes and packed a few things to take down with her. Jareth stayed in his seat voicing his annoyance several times at the delay. "What is your rush?"

"Time moves differently between the two worlds and you are taking longer than you think, time is short."

"Alright, alright I am ready," Kiara picked up her bags and headed towards the mirror almost forgetting about Jareth. She came back to help him and he looked like he was going to laugh at her, "What?"

"You can only transport through the mirror?"

"That is the only way I know, now let's get moving before I leave you here," Kiara said trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Jareth smirked at her and tried his best to help get him to the mirror and hold on to some of her bags while she told the mirror she wanted to transport back to the labyrinth.

Jareth saw the blur of the world and was pleasantly surprised to find himself back in bed with Kiara next to her. "Well your traveling ability needs work, but you have good aim for a landing."

"Huh? I don't know how to control that, it just seems to work out for me most of the time," Kiara said with a shrug. She looked around the room in shock as she began to notice that the room was a charred mess. "What happened to your room?"

Jareth glanced around, "The goblins cleaned up the plant mess."

Kiara turned back to Jareth hoping to see that he was joking, but his face was completely serious, "This was the alternative and you couldn't give me the time to get aboveground cleaning supplies! You must be the most impatient man on the planet."

"I'm a king," he replied with a smirk. "I am used to people catering to my every whim the moment I demand it."

"Yeah, well you're not getting that from me mister." Jareth raised his eyebrows at her and she corrected herself, "Except in front of your subjects." He nodded and got himself comfortable underneath the covers. Kiara climbed onto the bed next to him and waited for him to begin teaching her how to use magic to connect her computer to the internet.


	14. Concentrated Magic

**A/N Thank you reviewers and my beta, love you all. Own nothing that doesn't belong to me.**

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**Chapter 14: Concentrated Magic**

Magic lessons started out slow, Kiara was barely making any progress after two days of trying everything that Jareth told her to do. She was beginning to get frustrated and realized that she would need to visit the aboveground to get some work done. Jareth tried his best to keep his temper in check with her, but failed every time, "It's very easy, I don't understand how someone of your intelligence cannot grasp this simple concept."

"Arrggg," Kiara screamed in frustration, more at Jareth's lack of patience and understanding, "I haven't had a thousand years of practice and magic training like some irritating kings." She held out her hands and tried again to form her energies into a spell, but Jareth was making her too angry.

He watched her attempt again and felt a dangerous amount of magic surging through her and his aggravated expression slowly turned to one that was almost fearful. "Be careful, you are going to release too much at once."

Kiara wasn't listening and yelled out as she felt like she was being hit by lightning. Jareth was able to redirect some of her magic to establish the connection she wanted to her computer, but his new found energy he acquired the past two days was not enough to block or redirect all of it and he was also hit by the excess magic. Everyone outside of the castle could see the flashes of light coming from the king's window and wondered what was going on; no one came to find out though, it was the king's business.

Jareth opened his eyes feeling like he had gotten run over by a stampede of Ludo's family and looked around for Kiara. His eyes widened as he found that she was on the floor and he wasn't sure if she was breathing. He took a second to feel her energy and found that it was disappearing quickly. As fast as he was physically able, he hurled himself onto the floor next to her and tried to save her.

He didn't have much energy left in him, but he tried to push magic into her hoping it would bring her back. Her body twitched, but she was still not breathing. He searched his mind for another solution and found none, there were no CPR lessons in the underground. The only other thing he could think of at the time was to shake her and scream at her, "Kiara wake up! You need to wake up and save the labyrinth." He pushed another wave of magic into her lungs and collapsed on top of her.

Kiara felt like she was spiraling downward into a black hole. She vaguely heard Jareth's voice tell her to wake up, but she didn't understand the words. She felt a sudden pressure on her chest and it made her cough. The next thing she knew she was sitting up on the floor of Jareth's bedroom and her throat burned. Jareth was still on top of her and he let out a long, slow breath of relief. She was shaking like crazy and laid back down on the floor.

"What happened?"

Jareth spent a few minutes trying to roll off of her and answered, "You release too much concentrated magic. You didn't have anything left in you."

Kiara's eye began to tear up, it was a frightening experience and now she was not only shaking because she was completely drained of energy but also because she was scared out of her wits. She curled up into a small ball and covered her head with her arms.

"What are you doing? What is that awful noise?" Jareth asked as he watched her curl away from him. She didn't answer but continued to quietly sob. A goblin that had heard all of the noise finally got the courage to knock on the door and Jareth was extremely relieved. "Help her into the bed and get that dwarf Hogwash here now." The goblin bowed and summoned a few others to help get the two into the bed and he ran towards the dwarf's shack.

Kiara almost didn't notice being picked up and moved and kept herself in her tiny ball, continuing to try and stop her mind from thinking about what had just happened. Jareth sat next to her becoming more and more concerned for multiple reasons. The first of which was that he had never seen such concentrated magic before; she was too powerful for her own good. The second was he had no clue how to handle the situation he was currently in. His initial thought was to have her thrown into bog or into a dungeon until she was able to get herself under control. However, that would probably piss her off and make her leave.

Hoggle eventually made his way into the bedroom and kept his eyes on Jareth, "You called for me."

"She released too much energy and almost died; now she won't respond to me, fix it." Jareth glared at the small man as if though he was the cause of the problems. Hoggle just nodded and walked to the other side of the bed and pulled a chair close to Kiara's head.

Hoggle thought for a minute before talking, "When you get a break from your new lessons, I need ya to come down to my place and sit in my yard for awhile. Some of the plants just ain't growing." Jareth began to get angrier as he listened to the dwarf speak to Kiara. He didn't understand how asking for a favor was supposed to help, but he continued, "Then I thought we could head over to that fountain and maybe you can get it working again if you sit there long enough." Jareth shook his head and was about to yell at him until he heard Kiara speak.

"Ok," the voice was small and shaky, but she was speaking. "Jareth, can I not have a lesson tomorrow? I also need to go aboveground and work."

"No you don't, while you were expelling all that energy I managed to complete the spell you wanted. You should be able to do what you need from down here," Jareth answered.

"Ok," Kiara said as she drifted off to sleep. Hoggle left the castle a few minutes later and Jareth watched her for as long as his eyes stayed open. He didn't like how much the girl being afraid bothered him, but he shrugged it off as just being annoyed at using all his energy for her.

Kiara woke up early the next morning and tried using her laptop. She smiled when she found that Jareth had managed to get the internet to reach the underground and got right to work. She tried to finish as quickly as possible so that she could visit Hoggle and the fountain again. No longer upset about the night before, Kiara happily whistled to herself as she worked unknowingly waking Jareth up in the process.

Jareth didn't realize what the noise was at first until he sat up and looked over at Kiara who was sitting on the balcony with her strange device. He found himself incredibly hungry and called for her to get him something to eat. She turned to him with a smile and happily did what she was told.

"Here you go, what is this stuff anyway? I keep eating the food your goblins cook, but I never have seen anything like it before."

"It's eggs," Jareth answered as he took a bite.

"But… it's blue." Jareth nodded and Kiara just shrugged and went back to work. She couldn't get used to the food in the underground and started imagining that she was at a fast food restaurant getting a breakfast sandwich. She smiled and laughed at herself knowing that if she probably wouldn't have one for awhile.

"You need to learn some control over your magic," Jareth said as he looked at his plate. The food had changed into some type of sandwich. He shrugged and took a bite and very much enjoyed it. He liked aboveground food, but very rarely actually ate any of it.

"Yeah I know, I don't want a repeat of last night ever again," Kiara said as she finished the last spreadsheet and mailed it to her boss.

"I hope you don't repeat that again either, but I was talking about you transforming my breakfast." Kiara turned and looked at Jareth's plate and saw the very sandwich she had imagined.

"I wish I knew how to do that on purpose," she said and left to get herself dressed. When she came back, Jareth was back to reading through one of his books and not looking happy. "If it is alright with you, I am going to visit Hoggle's garden and the courtyard."

"Which courtyard?" Jareth asked before wondering why he even cared.

"The one with the statues of all the kings and queens of the labyrinth with the mermaid fountain in the center."

"Alright, just try not to grow any weeds while you are there," Jareth replied with a smirk. Kiara laughed and headed out of the castle. She couldn't get over how Jareth acted so differently each day, sometimes he was mean and cruel and others he was almost nice.

That day was just the start of routine that continued for the next two weeks. Every morning before Jareth woke up Kiara would do aboveground work and then get Jareth his breakfast. She would sit on his bed and attempt to change it into something more edible for him; however she was only successful twice. She spent the rest of the mornings at Hoggle's house while he tended to his garden and after lunch he would take her to the courtyard and leave her there while he did his work in the rest of the labyrinth. Before sunset Hoggle would come and get her and take her back to his house and she would head back to the castle on her own. Each night she had a magic lesson with Jareth, who was becoming more patient with her every day. By the end of the second week she could create crystals out of thin air.

Also at the end of the second week Jareth was able to get himself to his balcony without any help. He was completely exhausted by the time he got there, but he liked the fact that he wasn't stuck in one place anymore if there wasn't someone around. He took a break from the research and looked around the labyrinth. Hoggle's yard was blooming nicely and Jareth noticed that the path the two took every day to the courtyard was also. The walls they passed were brighter and the statues in the courtyard looked like new. Kiara had mentioned to Jareth that she was upset the fountain wasn't working yet, but he was sure that day would be coming soon.


	15. Vivian

**Chapter 15: Vivian**

Kiara came home that day carrying a book Didymus had lent to her about vampires. While she was wandering the courtyard that day she had accidentally bit her lip and when she put her hand to her mouth she found that she had small fangs forming. It was the first day that she didn't wait for Hoggle to escort her home and she ran into Didymus on the way. She was too afraid to mention the fangs, but she did ask about vampires in the labyrinth, which led to him lending her the book. She attempted to climb the stairs with her nose still in it and ended up with several bruises by the time she got to Jareth's room. She opened the door and walked in like usual, unaware that Jareth actually had company.

"Jareth darling, is this one of your servants? She doesn't look as dumb as your goblins, is she not capable of knocking?" Kiara looked up at the visitor with a scowl. If Maleficent was a real, then this woman was exactly how she would probably look. The woman was tall and evil looking with a dark black cloak around her. Jareth did not look happy at all, although Kiara was not sure if this was her fault or if it was the evil fae.

"My apologies, your majesty. I have come to report that the courtyard is almost back to normal," Kiara remembered her promise to act like she knew her place and tried not to tell this woman exactly what she thought. Jareth looked relieved and motioned for her to sit by the fireplace. Kiara sat down on the floor and acted like she was waiting for Jareth to tell her what he needed done.

"Where did you get such a powerful human? She isn't half bad looking even if she is as dumb as the rest of your wretched goblins." Kiara bit her tongue and almost cried out loud when her newly developing fangs sliced it open.

Jareth kept his eyes on the visitor and politely smiled at her, "Well Vivian, she wished herself away and I have decided to keep her as my personal servant. She is very good at following directions."

"Am I correct in guessing she is the cause of the renewed life in the kingdom?" The woman looked at Kiara with extreme distaste and Kiara couldn't help but wonder what she did wrong already to make this woman hate her so much.

"I believe so, which is very lucky for me or else I would have had to hand the kingdom over to someone else."

"Oh Jareth, you know you would hold onto the labyrinth until you drew your last breath," Vivian said as she waved a hand in his direction. "I'm glad since I found out just recently that I would be next in line for the throne." Kiara notice that the lady fae didn't exactly look happy she wasn't going to be taking over.

Jareth noticed it as well and smirked at her, "We all know you would not be able to handle the goblins."

"You are right as usual Jareth. If this kingdom was under my control then all of the goblins would be banished, along with those horrible fierys."

Jareth looked worried for a second and then returned to his smirk, "Well it's a good thing I am here then, now please don't let me keep you from your other business I am sure you need to attend to."

Vivian smiled at Jareth, "It is getting late isn't it? It was very nice catching up with you Jareth. I will visit again soon I am sure." She passed Kiara and gave her a small pat on the head and whispered something to herself. With a wave she blinked out of the room in a small puff of smoke. Jareth looked away with a mixture of anger and relief across his face.

"Is it alright for me to get up now?" Kiara asked. Jareth nodded and continued to stare out into the labyrinth. Kiara sat in the chair Vivian had left and debated on bringing up her possible vampireness with Jareth. "Hoggle said that if I stayed in the kingdom then I would turn into a creature of the labyrinth, is that right?" Jareth closed his eyes, but he was obviously listening because he nodded again. "What will I turn into?"

"I honestly don't know, but I am sure that you won't be a goblin."

"Before, you mentioned me becoming a witch."

Another nod from Jareth, "Yes, you already are one even if you aren't very good at it." Kiara suddenly understood, even if she did turn into something she would still keep her magic.

"Who was the evil fairy?"

Jareth opened his eyes and looked at her, "Vivian, she wants my throne and she came to see how much longer she would have to wait to get it."

"Would she really banish everyone?"

"Yes, I can't let that happen. As annoying as most of the creatures here are it is my job to protect them." Kiara smiled as she saw a new side to Jareth. He acted like he hated the goblins sometimes, but underneath he really cared about them.

"Are we having a lesson tonight?" Kiara asked hoping to get Jareth into a better mood. He just shook his head and got himself up to return to bed. Kiara walked next to him in case he needed help, but he managed by himself. It was still early, but the Goblin King was tired and went to sleep. Kiara went back to reading the book on vampires until after midnight, she was still getting used to calling 13:00 midnight. In her dreams she felt like she was spinning and woke up feeling nauseous and disoriented, the worst part was she was no longer in the labyrinth.


	16. Insanity

**A/N Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Love my reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 16: Insanity**

"She is waking up," someone said as they flashed a light in her eye.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Kiara shouted as she tried to get up. A bunch of hands pushed her back down and she heard a familiar voice.

"Kiara, it's alright. I found you on the floor of your apartment. You overdosed on your antidepressants. You were lucky I came in when I heard a thud come from your apartment, you could have died. How could you be so stupid?" Kiara struggled to see the person and found it was Jake, her next door neighbor. She knew he had a bit of a crush on her, but she didn't think they clicked very well.

"I didn't take any pills, I spent the past two weeks in the labyrinth," Kiara would have smacked her hand to her head if she could move. Why did she say that?

"What is the labyrinth?" a nurse asked.

"I don't know, but I gave her a book a couple months ago called 'The Labyrinth.' Kiara, you know that place isn't real right?" Jake asked slowly with a worried expression.

Kiara rolled her eyes and was able to see much better now. She was in a hospital surrounded by a bunch of people and one of them was Dr. Jacobson. "Oh god not you."

"Hello Miss Gairden, it is nice to see you again. You should not have skipped our last appointment. Now please tell me about this labyrinth," the doctor said as he sat in the chair next to him; all of the nurses dispersed except one and Jake stayed by her side.

"Of course it isn't real; I was confused since I had just woken up. Now can someone please get me a mirror?"

"I do not think that would be wise seeing how you just tried to kill yourself."

"I didn't, listen I just need a mirror. Jake, get me one please." Kiara was starting to get worked up and the nurse immediately jabbed a needle into her arm. "What the hell is that? Stop it, get off of me. Jareth, help me!" Kiara twisted and tried to get out of everyone's grasp until she was so tired that she could barely move, however she refused to shut her eyes and resisted falling asleep.

Dr. Jacobson turned to Jake and told him that Kiara needed to get some rest and had the nurses prepare to take her to the psychiatric ward. Kiara began to cry and tried to call for Hoggle and Jareth, but no one came.

In the middle of the night, Kiara got out of bed and ran for the bathroom. She had to pull out a bunch of tubes out of her arm which hurt like hell, but all she cared about was figuring out how she got home and why everyone thought she was crazy. She looked into the mirror and called out, "Hoggle, I need you." She looked into the mirror and looked around the bathroom, but no one came. She tried again, "Jareth? Goblin King? Please, I need you." Once again no one came. She began to wash her face to distract herself for a second and noticed that her fangs had disappeared, "No!"

A couple of male nurses came into the bathroom to find out what was going on and Kiara began to scream and kick at them. "No! Hoggle! Jareth! I want to go home! Leave me alone! It has to be real," she fell to the ground in tears and barely registered anything as she was taken to a small empty room where she couldn't hurt herself.

Days passed by and Kiara would barely eat or drink anything, she just sat in the corner rocking and calling for Hoggle or Jareth to come and save her. Dr. Jacobson tried to talk to her several times and she never even looked up at him. She would just mumble, "It has to be real, it has to be real." After several injections and pills that were forced down her throat she stopped mumbling to herself and instead looked around her and cried. She never thought she would ever get that messed up in the head. Occasionally she would tell the nurse that she wanted to speak to Sarah Williams and they ignored her.

The morning that Kiara had somehow disappeared Jareth woke up wondering why he felt weak. He turned over and faced the balcony expecting to see Kiara typing on her laptop and was slightly surprised to see she wasn't there. He mentally shrugged and assumed she was down in the kitchen getting breakfast, however after an hour passed he began to get annoyed. He shut his eyes and mentally searched the labyrinth for her. A few minutes later and he still couldn't find her energy anywhere. He sat up and yelled for his goblins asking if anyone had seen her. They all claimed they hadn't seen her since the night before and Jareth angrily threw a pillow off of the bed in an attempt to calm down. He took a deep breath hoping that she just left to get something she required from the aboveground and she would come back.

Twenty-six hours passed in the underground and there was still no sign of Kiara. Jareth was beginning to get angry until he noticed a magical residue in his bedroom that did not come from him or Kiara. He put all of his concentration into figuring out what the spell was and panic crossed his face. If he was at full power he would have had Vivian locked away in an oubliette without any magic. He sighed and tried to figure out how he didn't notice her bind Kiara's magic and send her home. Jareth didn't know how they would get her or when she would be able to get herself back.

Jareth did his best to keep the goblins hopes from crashing again and kept telling them that as soon as the bind wore off then Kiara would be back. In the meantime he had them and Hoggle build the cottage that Kiara had mentioned before, he wanted to keep them busy. One evening, while Jareth was bored of sitting by himself he started playing around with Kiara's computer. She showed him once how to work it, but he only understood the basics. He managed to turn it on and saw a few things pop up that he didn't know about. After a few minutes of pushing some buttons a message popped up from a person called 'JakeyD'

"Kiara? They gave you access to a computer?"

Jareth looked at the message suspiciously and typed out an answer, "I am not Kiara, why would she not have access to a computer?"

"Oh, who is this then? Last I saw her she was put into a mental institution calling for some imaginary people."

"Who was she calling for?"

"Jareth, Hoggle and Sarah I think. Now who is this and why are you on her messenger?"

Jareth wished he could actually see the person who speaking to him, "I am Jareth, find Sarah Williams and bring her to Kiara." Sarah would be able to bring Jareth up and maybe even help get Kiara back down, he was slightly proud of Kiara for thinking of it.

"Why can't you?"

"Because I live very far away, now do what I say."

Jake immediately turned off his computer and almost ignored the person on the other side of the conversation. After much thought he went to mental hospital and visited with Kiara. He found her sitting in a corner with her arms around her knees. She didn't acknowledge him as he sat in front of her, "Who is Sarah Williams?"

Kiara's glassy eyes looked up hopefully, "Please find her."

Jake nodded, "I need to know more than her name, it's not like it is very unique or anything." Kiara didn't know much else besides her name and started rocking again. "I got permission from your doctor to bring you something from your apartment." He turned and pulled out a small flower pot out of his backpack, "They only would let me leave it here if I repotted it into a plastic container."

Kiara smiled at the flowers that filled the entire pot, "It is still here."

"What is it? I have never seen a flower like this before." Jake lightly touched one of the petals and shrugged to himself.

"It is a weed, but I like it. Sarah is about 35 years old; her mother is the actress Linda Williams." Jake nodded and gave her a small hug before leaving. Kiara hugged the pot into her chest and went back to mumbling to herself.


	17. Sarah

**A/N Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thank you reviewers, you make me smile. Thanks to my beta. Enjoy**

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**Chapter 17: Sarah**

Jake spent the next few days doing some research and was able to find Sarah's home address. He was nervous as he walked up to the door and knocked lightly. A woman with long brown hair came to the door and looked at Jake curiously. "Umm, hello. This is going to sound weird, but a friend of mine, Kiara Gairden, was recently put in a mental hospital and kept claiming you could help her, do you know her?"

Sarah shook her head, "I'm sorry, I wonder why she thought I could help."

"I don't know. I talked to her friend, Jareth, on instant messenger and he thought you could help too," Jake said as he sighed. He knew it was a long shot, but he was hoping that Kiara had some sanity left.

"Jareth?" Sarah said with wide eyes; could it really be? "Maybe I can help, tell me where she is and I will visit her."

"Really? Thanks," Jake gave her a few more details and wrote down her name and the address of the hospital thanking Sarah again for trying. Once he left Sarah called her stepmother and asked her to pick her children up from school and keep them for a few days. Irene was always willing to help and thankfully never asked too many questions. That settled, she went into her bedroom and prepared herself to do something she never thought she would ever do again; she called the Goblin King.

"Sarah, what a pleasure to see you again," said a voice behind her. Sarah turned around with a fake smile; she didn't want to admit that she was slightly afraid. She had told herself many times growing up that the Labyrinth was just a dream, but now here was the man that loved her.

"Hello Jareth, are you alright?" Sarah asked as she noticed that Jareth was not getting out of the bed, spinning crystals or doing anything at all.

"No, I need your help Sarah. I need to see Kiara, it is a long story and I will explain on the way."

"Alright," Sarah said slowly, "Let's go." She began to walk out the door and turned back when she saw that the Goblin King was not following her. "Are you coming?"

"Ah, I need some help," Jareth said quietly. He didn't think this far ahead, it didn't occur to him that if Sarah brought him aboveground then he would be weak in front of her. Sarah helped him to the car and waited until they were driving to start asking questions. Jareth started from the beginning and explained why he needed Kiara back in the labyrinth so badly.

"Wow, is there anything I can do? I didn't realize I caused so much damage."

"Will you be my bride and rule the kingdom with me?" Jareth asked even though he knew the answer.

"Jareth, I am married with two girls. You know the way you tried to get me was not exactly the best way to find a bride. You don't just whisk a fifteen year old year to the labyrinth and promise her a fantasy if she loves you. You didn't even take any time to get to know me or for me to get to know you. Anyway, I was fifteen! You really think I was thinking about marriage?"

Jareth crossed his arms and didn't answer but instead turned the topic back to Kiara, "So where is the girl?"

"Her friend said she was in a mental institution after trying to kill herself by overdosing and from what I understand she is not doing well at all. I can understand how it must be hard for her."

Jareth looked at Sarah with raised eyebrows, "I don't."

Sarah shook her head at the king, "Think about it, she probably doesn't know what is real or imaginary anymore. That is probably what drove her crazy, I stopped believing as I grew up; it is a bit unnerving to have you back." Jareth glanced at her briefly and then turned to look out the window. They continued the rest of the drive in silence.

Kiara was still in the corner on her room, mourning over her dead plant. There were no windows in the room and the flowers all withered and died. The only sign of their existence was some dried up petals and a small pile of the pollen which Kiara kept neatly swept into the other corner. Her head was practically empty from all the drugs the doctors kept injecting into her; she didn't respond when the nurse opened her door and announced that she had visitors.

"Alright you two, she had a harder than normal day so please try not to excite her," the nurse said as he held open the door for Sarah to wheel Jareth in. It had taken some arguing before Jareth allowed himself to be pushed around in the chair, but eventually he wore himself out trying to be stubborn. Sarah nodded and watched as he closed the door and locked it.

Jareth looked at Kiara with worry not understanding why she wasn't happy to see them. Sarah sat down in front of her and tried to find something to get her attention. "Hello Kiara, I'm Sarah," she started. Kiara slowly raised her eyes and tried to focus on what was in front of her. "What is that you have?" she asked pointing to the plastic pot.

Kiara lifted it up to show Sarah, "They died. There isn't any sunlight, so they died." Sarah nodded and looked back towards Jareth who was becoming more and more concerned.

"What was in there?"

"A present from Hoggle, but he isn't real; none of it is real."

Jareth managed to push his chair forward a bit and tried to talk to Kiara, "Of course it is real and I need you to come back with me." Kiara looked up with a sad smile and shook her head.

"It's not real, you're not real, I called for you and you didn't come."

"I am here; you couldn't call for me because your magic was bound by Vivian." Sarah looked at Jareth in surprise; he seemed to really care for her. She never had seen him concerned about anyone else besides himself.

Kiara tried to think clearly, but it was difficult, "Vivian bound me so you would die and she would get your kingdom?" Jareth nodded. "That bitch!" She looked back at her flower pot sadly. "How am I going to get out of here?"

"Sarah should be able to take care of that," Jareth said as he looked at the older woman. "You should still have the power to take us underground."

"Ok, I'll try," Sarah lightly touched the other two and wished herself to the castle. Instantly they were transported, but instead of landing in the castle they found themselves in the middle of the fierys territory.

Kiara laughed and Jareth looked at Sarah with an annoyed glare. To make matters worse, the wheelchair didn't transport with them so they had to help Jareth walk back to the castle. Kiara wasn't much help because the drugs would make her randomly just stop and she would temporarily forget what was going on. They made it to Hoggle's house and stopped there for the night. Kiara knocked on his door and gave him a hug when he answered. She was so happy to see him again. He pretended he didn't like it and yelled at her for staying away for so long.

"Hogwart, is the cottage finished?" Jareth asked when they finished their reunion.

"Almost, it's good enough to spend the night in." Hoggle pointed across the path and up the road a bit to a little house that Kiara didn't remember seeing before.

"Who lives there?" she asked.

Jareth smirked at her, "It is the cottage you requested. We can rest there for the night." Kiara smiled and tried to hurry Jareth up so that she could see it. Sarah stayed behind to talk to Hoggle.

"Hello."

"Oh, it's you," Hoggle said as he turned back into his house.

"I am so sorry I haven't called, but I didn't believe in this place anymore. I started a whole new life." Sarah followed him in and they spent some time talking before Sarah left to find Didymus and Ludo.


	18. A New Home

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks to my reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 18: A New Home**

Kiara left Jareth on a small chair in the sitting room of the cottage and began to look around the place. She loved every bit of it and came back to sit across from Jareth. "Is this real Jareth?"

Jareth raised an eyebrow at her, "Of course it's real. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"I don't know; it's just really confusing. How do I know what's real and what's not? What if I am just hallucinating?" Kiara looked around sadly. Jareth didn't know how to answer that question; many people had questioned his sanity, but he knew perfectly well what was real. "Do you still love her?" Jareth looked up at her, but didn't answer. "Why?"

"It is not any of your business," Jareth responded harshly. Kiara sighed and looked around her new home again wondering how much time she would actually get to spend in it. "Is the aboveground so bad that you would really try to kill yourself?"

Kiara looked back at Jareth with a shocked expression, "Huh?"

"That man that found Sarah said that you tried to kill yourself when you could not return to the underground, why would you do that?"

"I didn't," Kiara said as she shook her head quickly, "at least I don't remember doing that. I woke up in the hospital and they told me I did, but yes it is that bad, for me at least."

"Why?"

"Why do you care?" Kiara said harshly and immediately regretted it. "Sorry, I don't know why I said that. I don't want to talk about it, ok? I am glad to be back here whether it is real or not." Jareth let the topic go and Kiara tried to break the silence again, "Why didn't you go off with Sarah?"

"She is visiting with those friends of hers."

"Oh, well you want me to help you into the bed? I can sleep out here on the couch," Kiara asked as she held out an arm to Jareth.

"You should sleep next to me like normal to make getting back to the castle easier tomorrow. Of course if you weren't such a slow learner you could easily transport us there."

Kiara rolled her eyes, "First off, my magic is still bound isn't it? Secondly, the bed is much smaller than yours and I don't think you would be very comfortable sharing it with me." She took Jareth to the bedroom and helped him get in.

"Yes, I can still feel your magic, but you will not be able to use it. I need to contact Vivian as soon as we get back and have her take the spell off. Even though this bed is very small, I think it would be better if you stayed in here tonight."

Kiara shrugged, "If you say so, I could just sleep on the floor. It can't be worse than sleeping in the corner of my hospital room." Kiara smiled feeling proud of herself for recovering from that ordeal so quickly, although she had to try her best not to think about it.

Jareth laid down at first not caring that she was going to be uncomfortable on the floor. All he cared about was that he would be stronger the next day, however after a few minutes a niggling feeling of guilt crept into his mind. He didn't know what the feeling was at first and began to push it away until it bothered him so much he angrily told her that they would share the bed.

"Why? I'm fine here."

"Because I said so, now do as I command." Jareth moved over a tiny bit to give her some room and she climbed in next to him.

Kiara smiled at him and felt a sharpness hit her lips, "They're back!"

"What is back?" Jareth asked.

"I think I am turning into a vampire, look I have fangs. I didn't have them when I went aboveground." Kiara opened her mouth a little bit so that Jareth could see the tiny fangs that were starting to grow.

Jareth made a small noise that Kiara thought could have been a quiet laugh, but she wasn't sure, "I don't think you are going to become a vampire, lots of creatures have fangs."

"Oh, well what will I turn into?" Kiara asked. She was very glad she wasn't going to be a vampire.

"I don't know yet. I will tell you when I do," Jareth answered as he turned to fall asleep. Kiara followed his example and tried to get situated, but found it difficult. There was not enough room for the two of them to lie without touching and still be relatively comfortable. "Would you stop moving? You don't normally do this."

"Sorry, listen can I break rule number one? I just can't get comfortable any other way."

Jareth tried to remember what rule number one was and couldn't so he just nodded, "Fine, whatever just stop moving."

Kiara took a deep breath and slowly turned towards Jareth back and put her arm around his waist. She felt him tense up and then relax slightly. She put her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes with a small smile, "Is this alright?"

"Fine, as long as you stay still." They both fell asleep and for Kiara it was heaven sleeping in a bed again.

The next morning Kiara helped Jareth get to the castle and he had the goblins summon Vivian right away. Vivian arrived a little before dinner time and was brought up to the throne room. Jareth was sitting there waiting for her and Kiara was kneeling by his side as he instructed her earlier. She walked in with a smirk on her face and bowed to Jareth.

"You summoned me?"

Jareth looked at her angrily, "Yes, I will not tolerate you casting spells on any of my subjects. Now take the spell off of her." He gestured towards Kiara who looked up at Vivian with a small grin.

"It must have been an accident. She is very powerful; I probably was just concerned about what she might accidentally do to your kingdom and cast the spell. I will of course remove it immediately," Vivian said unhappily as she waved her hand over Kiara.

"Really Vivian, I should expect that you would have better control over your magic. You are dismissed, now leave my kingdom until you can keep your spells to yourself," Jareth said as he waved her away. A goblin came to escort her out and she was not happy about it at all.

As soon as she left Kiara jumped up from the floor and pulled out a crystal, "Yes!" Jareth even smiled at her as she tried to practice putting a spell into it. They headed back to the bedroom and Jareth gave Kiara the evening off to spend as she pleased.

She took the evening to spend with Hoggle and Didymus at Hoggle's shack, where she finally got to meet Ludo. She had a great time catching up with Didymus while playing scrabble. Sadly, she only had enough time for a couple games before it started getting almost too dark to see. She had to run back to the castle and was glad that she made it in the dark without getting lost.


	19. Crystals

**A/N Own Nothing That Doesn't Belong to Me. Thanks for the reviews. Enjoy**

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**Chapter 19: Crystals**

Jareth was already asleep when she walked into the room, but Kiara wasn't tired yet and wanted to spend some more time practicing creating spells with her crystals. She sat on the balcony spinning them like Jareth had shown her. She was amazed to find it was so easy and threw one towards the fountain sending good vibes; she threw another towards Hoggle's garden, one towards her house and the last one she created she blew towards Jareth. She wasn't sure if it would work, but she attempted to put her energy into the crystals and hoped it would speed up the restoration.

When Kiara awoke the next morning she was surprised to find that Jareth was already awake and not only that, but he was dressed and standing on the balcony looking out at his kingdom. She got up and stood next to him noting that his breathing was normal and he looked happy. He turned to her with an actual full smile, "What did you do?"

"I can't believe it worked, last night I came home and made four crystals and tried to fill them with my energy like you showed me. I couldn't form any of them into an actual spell so I sent them off in four directions and one I directed to you."

Jareth looked at the girl proudly and nodded, "This could solve a lot of problems. We need to head out towards the other places you sent the crystals and see if it worked there as well." Jareth briefly wished that she had given him enough strength to fly, but he was happy enough just to be able to walk.

Kiara got herself dressed quickly and met Jareth outside of the castle and together they headed for her cottage. She wasn't really sure what to expect since the place was just finished being built. As they walked Kiara grew slightly concerned about what this would mean for her friendship with Jareth. If he didn't need her to be around him anymore then would he want her to? She looked up at the king and suspected that he probably wouldn't, he made it perfectly clear before that he really didn't have any interest in being friends with any of his subjects. She looked at him again and saw a different Jareth than the one she used to help to the balcony and back to the bed. He somehow seemed more arrogant, conceited, selfish and cruel; she didn't know how she knew that, but just looking at him gave her that sense. She also couldn't help but notice him kick a few of his goblins with that smirk on his face. She was going to miss the sad, lonely king who actually seemed to enjoy her being around.

They continued to walk and Kiara stayed silent wondering what she would do with herself with all her free time if Jareth decided he didn't need her anymore. Jareth was just enjoying the fresh air and had renewed hopes that the labyrinth could be saved. They walked up towards the cottage and Jareth grimaced. The crystal worked on her house alright, the garden was overrun with weeds and the paint on the outside was bright and vibrant.

"You will need to get Hoggle to take care of that yard, "Jareth said as he continued down the road to Hoggle's house.

Kiara smiled slightly and wondered if she could keep some of the flowers in little boxes on the windowsills. She made a mental note to ask Hoggle about that and ran to catch up with Jareth. They soon came to Hoggle's yard and found him trimming the bushes with a smile. Kiara waved to him happily. He returned the wave, "You must have left a lot of energy here last night. The yard is back to normal."

"Hogwash, go over to the lady's yard and get rid of the weeds," Jareth commanded. Hoggle heard the difference in his voice and immediately went to do his bidding.

"Um, yes, I'll go and do that now," he said as he dropped what he was working on and began to head towards Kiara's house.

"Wait, Hoggle, I got a small request." She caught up with him and asked quickly about the window boxes. He agreed and she headed back to Jareth. "Why were you so mean to him? Can't you ask him nicely to pull the weeds? I felt bad asking him for flower boxes after you demanded him to go." Kiara glared at the Goblin King for a second and turned to go to the fountain.

Jareth's eyes narrowed at her as he began to follow, "Hogbrain will do what I tell him or it's the bog of eternal stench and he knows it."

"His name is Hoggle and you know that. What is the bog of eternal stench? Wait, I think I can figure it out." Kiara rolled her eyes and began to be annoyed at Jareth again. They finally made it to the fountain and Kiara was delighted to see it was actually working. She sat on the edge and watched it for awhile. Jareth looked around at the hedges happy to see that they were full and no longer dried out.

Kiara decided to try to get Jareth into a normal friendly conversation and thought of something when she looked at the statues, "Did you know any of these people?" She wandered around them wondering if any of them were relatives of Jareth's. They never discussed how the kingdom was passed down and no one in the labyrinth had last names.

"Yes."

"Which ones? How do get to be king of the goblins?"

Jareth sighed not wishing to answer a bunch of questions. "Those two were my parents," he said as he pointed in the direction of two statues, "You either inherit the kingdom or the high council decides."

Kiara looked at the two he pointed at trying to see a family resemblance. It was hard to tell by a statue, but she got the sense that Jareth had his mother's looks and his father's personality. She wanted to ask what happened to them, but Jareth wasn't in a sharing mood so she kept her mouth shut.

"Alright, try again with the crystals and send one towards me. Perhaps it will be enough to allow me to fly home and you can return to your cottage."

"So I take it you won't be needing me at the castle anymore," Kiara asked as she sat back down on the fountain.

"No," he said with a smirk, "The goblins will collect your belongings and deliver them to you. I will only need you to throw a crystal or two a day to me until I can find a permanent solution. You will also send your crystals to all the areas of the labyrinth."

Kiara looked down sad and annoyed; he was ordering her around again. She pulled out a few crystals and began to spin them as she tried putting her energy into it. She knew she wasn't doing it as well as she was the night before, mostly because her heart wasn't really in it. She picked up the first one and blew it towards Jareth, it popped and a soft white light dissipated around him. He looked down at himself and transformed into an owl. He flapped his wings experimentally before taking off back towards the castle. Kiara let a few tears drop and threw the other crystals in random directions. She only sat there a few more minutes before returning to her house where Hoggle was still working in her yard.


	20. Date

**A/N Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks for the reviews. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 20: Date**

"Jareth is a complete asshole," she said as she slammed her front door shut. Hoggle followed her in bringing the window boxes full of the purple and blue swirled flower. "Thank you," she took them and began attached them to the windows she wanted them on. Hoggle nodded and headed back outside to continue working. She looked out her window at Hoggle and breathed in the scent of her plants, it was very relaxing to her.

"Hoggle, I can finish the weeding. You don't have to be uncomfortable for me," Kiara said after she saw he was starting to feel the effects of breathing in the pollen. "Go back to your yard."

He waved a hand at her, "Meh, don't worry about me, anyways I's almost done." She shrugged and started making dinner for the two of them. After he planted some grass seeds he came in and ate with her. She wasn't a very good underground cook, but it was good enough. Hoggle listened as she vented about how much of an arrogant bastard Jareth was that day. He completely agreed with her feelings on Jareth, but as he commented a few times he was too much of a coward to go against him.

Kiara smirked, "Well I'm not. Someday I'll find a way to get back at him." Hoggle laughed wanting to be around when she did. He said goodbye and went to his own house. Kiara cleaned her new house happily, Hoggle always made her feel so much better. She watered her new house plants and after some debating repotted some so that she had a plant to brighten her living room.

Each morning Kiara would send four crystals out to the labyrinth and then wander, sometimes by herself or sometimes with Hoggle, Didymus or Ludo. At first she was afraid to wander by herself, but everyone knew that she was the reason the magic was returning and no one wanted to harm her. She got lost plenty of times, but when she was ready to find her way home the labyrinth always was happy to help. The goblins would steal books from Jareth's library for her so that she could research and practice new spells and was getting much better on her own. Her fangs were now fully grown and her eyes were beginning to change color. They were a dark brown, but now a yellow circle was beginning to form around her pupils.

A couple weeks later she saw a runner going towards the oubliette. She knew that Jareth was most likely watching, but she asked the labyrinth to block the passageway and instead turn her in the right direction. It didn't like the request, but veered her away from the dungeon anyway; however, it did not put her on the right path. Kiara knew that, but was happy enough that the girl wouldn't be stuck.

Kiara used her laptop to keep in contact with some people from the aboveground and was surprised when Jake asked her on a date. He asked a few questions about the mental hospital, but she would always change the subject. She wondered if somehow she could use this as revenge. She would need to go aboveground to get ready and with the time difference she would most likely be gone longer than Jareth would like. She chuckled to herself, he might miss a crystal and that would piss him off a bit and there was nothing he would be able to do about it. It wasn't really much, but it was the best idea she had for now.

The day of her date, Hoggle was finishing up in her yard and watering her plant. She came out to him with blueberry muffins and a request that if Jareth asked him where she was that he tell him she was seeing another man. Hoggle gave her a strange look and agreed since that was what he would have said anyway. There was no way in hell that he was going to lie to Jareth; he knew from experience that if he tried he would know.

Kiara and Jake met at a small restaurant near their apartments. Kiara had moved all of her stuff out a few weeks before and sold everything that she didn't want to take with her back to the labyrinth. It was just like Kiara remembered Jake to be and she didn't feel like they really connected. She was having a nice time anyway and after dinner they saw a movie. She had to think really hard to remember the last time she was even in a movie theater. Afterwards it was back to Jake's apartment.

Jake felt the date was going extremely well and was happy that she accepted the invitation to come back to the apartment. They sat on the couch for awhile before Jake got brave and started to make out with her. Kiara went along with it for awhile hoping that something would spark, but nothing did. As they continued she wondered what was wrong. Jake was a nice guy and seemed to really care about her, he was really attractive too. Eventually Kiara pulled away with a sad smile. She didn't want to go any further and decided to have the 'let's take it slow' talk. She gathered some courage and flat out told him that she really liked him as a friend, but wasn't sexually interested. He was disappointed, but he was too much of a nice guy to be mad at her. She left his apartment and found a hotel to stay at. She wanted to wait as long as possible before going back to the labyrinth. She knew it wouldn't decay that fast, but Jareth's power would.

The morning after Kiara left Jareth got out of bed feeling a little off. He really didn't think about it though, since recently he often woke up before Kiara did and sometimes didn't get the energy boost until after lunch. He started his daily routine of scouting through the labyrinth, yelling at goblins, and researching ways to permanently fix his magic. That evening he still did not have his energy boost and was furious when he found that he had to actually walk to Kiara's house instead of flying.

He banged on her door trying not to breathe in too much. The plants sat at the window next to the door and he wondered how anyone ever managed to visit her. There was no answer at her house so he tried Hoggle's. Hoggle immediately jumped up to answer and spent a few minutes getting yelled at before he could answer.

"Uh, the little lady went home for awhile. She says a young man was taking her out and she might be back in a few days."

"A few days!" Jareth grabbed Hoggle by his shirt and shook him. Hoggle nodded completely afraid; if there was anything else to tell then he would have spilled. Jareth threw him across the room and stormed out and back to the castle. He would have to have a talk with that girl when she got back.

Kiara spent some time aboveground shopping and getting her nails done. She was enjoying being pampered and was almost sad to head back. It was a nice vacation, but there was no place like home and she did love her new home very much. She transported back and looked around her house unhappily. She had left the windows open so there was a lot of pollen to clean up. She put her bags away and got to work. She was just about done when she had an unhappy visitor.


	21. An Unhappy Visitor

**A/N Talim: Jareth did you see the past reviews? You are going back into your cage, everyone is very unhappy with you. **

**'Jareth shrugs' **

**Jareth: I will kick them all into the bog, including you. **

**Talim: Ha, you have no power over me, now get back in the cage until you learn to be nicer to Kiara. 'Cracks a whip' **

**Alrighty, Jareth is grounded now until he learns to behave. As usual I own nothing that doesn't crawl out of the dark recesses of my mind. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 21: Unhappy Visitor**

"Hello Jareth, did you miss me?" Kiara asked as she went back to cleaning.

"You are to stay in the labyrinth to assure that I have the power to run my kingdom. Why were you aboveground?" Jareth took a seat in her living room and waited for her to answer and to give him some magic.

"Uh, are you ordering me about again? I don't see any of your underlings here. I will leave when I damn well please." Kiara stopped cleaning for a minute to glare at Jareth and then began to pretend he wasn't even there.

Jareth got his temper under control and tried to remember what worked before when she was unhappy with him. "The labyrinth needs you," he said as he followed her into the kitchen.

"And the labyrinth is fine, since you no longer want me around why should I give a shit about you?"

"You really want Vivian to take the throne?"

Kiara started to answer and stopped, he had her there. If she didn't help him then she would take over and ruin everything. "Of course not, but I am mad at you so I will make you suffer." She sat down at her kitchen table and Jareth soon joined her. "I liked it better when you actually seemed to want me around. What is going to happen when you actually find a permanent solution? I'll never see you again." Outside the wind started to pick up and dark clouds began to fill the sky.

Jareth looked out the window concerned; storms were extremely rare in the labyrinth and usually were quite destructive. He looked at Kiara and wondered if she was causing it. "I will find tasks for you."

Kiara frowned at Jareth, "I liked you a lot better when you were weak; you weren't as much of a jerk. Of course that was just because you needed something. I thought we were… never mind."

Jareth almost laughed at her until he saw that she was really upset and the wind was getting stronger. Kiara was slightly enjoying the breeze, but kept her eyes on the table. "Friends? I am king I don't need friends."

Kiara looked up at him as the air rushed in through the window and blew her hair around. She stared at him angrily, "How can you not want there to be someone around when you need something and I don't mean something that your goblins can get for you. That's probably why you're still hung up on Sarah, normal people talk to their friends and get over it. You must get lonely sometimes, you acted like it before."

Jareth thought about her words, he was lonely but he was always able to fill it with distractions. His favorite distraction was being evil to his subjects and toying with runners. He never wanted to let himself be in a position to be hurt again. He kept his eyes on the sky and tried to think of something to say to calm her down. "I am heartless, no matter wh- wha-… ah-choo! Get rid of those things! No matter what you think, I am heartless and cruel."

Kiara shook her head and shut the windows to keep the pollen and the rain out, "I don't believe that. There were times where you acted like you cared."

"As you mentioned before it was because I needed something from you."

She walked into her living room and sat on her couch wondering what it was that made her care what Jareth thought. No matter how angry she was at him there was always a part of her happy to see him.

Jareth sat across from her still waiting for her to give him the power to fly again. He knew he was lying to himself and to her and part of him did like having her around. He liked to talk to her, but he wasn't sure why and he knew he shouldn't care. He began to have that guilty feeling again and did his best to push it away, but it kept eating away at him. No one had ever affected him like this before. "Shall we make a new deal?" Kiara lifter her eyes slightly and waited for him to continue. "I will try to make some time in my busy schedule for you and you will give me notice before leaving for the aboveground."

Kiara shook her head, "That's not what I want, although from now on I will tell you if I need to go aboveground for more than a few hours. I just want you to really want me to be around because you like being around me, not because you want something from me. I can't force you to feel like that though so forget it."

Jareth sighed and debated telling her the truth, but that meant he would have to actually accept the fact that he wasn't entirely cold hearted and he wasn't sure if he could do that. "Kiara, I… don't ha… ah-choo!" he looked over at the small pot on the end table and rolled his eyes, "You have them inside your home as well? I don't hate having you around, except when you keep these blasted things. You do it just to annoy me don't you?"

Kiara laughed a bit and shook her head, "No I honestly just like the way they look and the way they smell. I never thought you would actually visit me and they don't really bother Hoggle." She took a deep breath while she thought, "You don't hate having me around? Well coming from you that must be a compliment."

"It's the best you are going to get," he said as he checked the sky again. The storm didn't look like it was getting any worse, but it wasn't going stop. He was going to have to teach her some control before she got really angry and blew the castle away or something. He sneezed again and began to glare at her, "Give me some power to get home so I can get out of this house."

She stood up at smiled, "Alright, are you sure you don't want to take one of them home?" She enjoyed teasing him and was happy with the angry expression she got back. It was much easier this time for her to make a crystal filled with magic for him. He was shocked by the amount of energy she gave him and nodded pleased with her improvement. He changed form and took off for the castle. Kiara watched for awhile and wondered if any part of him cared for her at all.


	22. Peaches

**A/N Talim: Hey Jareth, our reviewers think I should throw you into a pit of fangirls, what do you think?**

***Jareth shudders* Jareth: You wouldn't dare, because then you would have to share me.**

**Talim: Well you got me there *Cracks Whip* Back in the cage. Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Love my reviewers, Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 22: Peaches**

Kiara decided to call it an early night, but the storm got worse and began blowing pieces of the roof off and raining inside of all her rooms. She ran to Hoggle's house and found the door locked and no one answered. Unsure of where to try next she ran towards the castle. She almost wanted to knock on one of the goblin houses, but shuddered at the thought. She would rather walk through the storm, not like she could get any more soaked. She finally made it and found a spare bedroom for her to spend the night.

The next morning Kiara got up early and headed back home to check out the damage. Hoggle started to fix her roof, but the more annoying part was trying to dry out all of her stuff. She wasn't good enough with magic to try and do it the easy way, but she knew someone that could. She never tried calling anyone while she was in the labyrinth, but now was a good time as any. She went to her mirror, "Goblin King, I need your help." Jareth was in the middle of lunch when he found himself standing in Kiara's bathroom.

"What do you want?" he asked angrily.

"If I give you enough power, can you do a spell for me?"

Jareth thought about that for a minute, "Probably, it depends on what you want done. I haven't tried any spells other than transforming." She smiled and pulled him out into the living room. "What happened in here?"

"The storm destroyed my roof so now everything is wet. How much energy do you need to dry it all out?"

Jareth smirked and laughed to himself, "You caused that storm when you were upset last night. You need to learn control."

"Well you stopped teaching me when you stopped wanting me around."

Jareth glanced over at Kiara, "We are not having this argument again are we?"

"Only if you continue being an ass, now help me fix my house please."

"Ordering me around?" Jareth asked with a grin.

Kiara lightly smacked him, "Oh shut it Goblin King; I am going to try to give you energy directly instead of putting it into a crystal."

Jareth looked a bit afraid, "As long as you don't almost explode again." Kiara nodded and put her hand up to Jareth's chest and began to mentally feel her magic, which was the most difficult part in Kiara's opinion. Jareth was able to sense magic anywhere in the labyrinth, Kiara was still trying to get used to finding her own. She saw it in her mind and mentally pushed it out of her and into Jareth. Hoggle was watching but couldn't see anything going on; Jareth could sense the magic flow out of her and into him and once it reached him he felt like he was back to his old self.

Kiara collapsed and fell asleep; Jareth put her on her couch while he worked on drying out her cottage. It was a quick spell and soon everything was as it should be. He looked over at Kiara amazed that she was able to stop before killing herself; she came really close to giving too much away. Jareth pulled out a crystal, left it for her on the table and flew away.

It wasn't until the next evening that Kiara finally woke up. She looked around the room slowly happy to see that it was no longer a soaked mess. Jareth did a really good job of cleaning and she smirked as she noticed that the purple and blue weeds were replaced with small red flowers. She laughed and picked up the crystal on the table. When she turned it to the side it transformed into a beautiful rose; Kiara was shocked that Jareth would waste magic to make her smile and got a vase to put it in. She found that she was still tired and moved into her bedroom to sleep out the rest of the night.

Unknown to anyone in the kingdom, Vivian was standing outside of Kiara's door with an evil smirk on her face. This lowly human was the only thing standing in her way of getting rid of Jareth and she had a new plan to get rid of her. With a wave of her hand a peach appeared as she looked over towards Hoggle's shack, she had the perfect way to get her to eat it.

Kiara woke up the next morning finding herself in the mood to pick some fruit. She found a basket and headed for forest. Vivian watched with a smile and banged on Hoggle's door. He opened it expecting it to be Kiara or Didymus and backed away in fear seeing the evil fae.

"Little man, I require your assistance," Vivian said as she held out the fruit, "When that girl comes home add this to her basket."

Hoggle took the peach and remembered how bad he felt when he did that to Sarah, "What will it do?" He looked up at Vivian and tried to act braver than he was.

"None of your concern, you will give that to her or I will do worse things to you than just throwing you into the bog." She turned around and left Hoggle alone to decide what to do. He may have been terrified of Jareth, but this new lady was much worse. He kept an eye on Kiara's house as he waited for her to return home. When she finally made it back, he went over to visit.

"Hi! Do you like berry pie? I don't know what any of these fruits are, but a fiery promised me that they all taste good. I am going attempt to put a few together." Hoggle just nodded as he looked into her basket. She had a wide assortment of underground berries and he wondered if she would notice that she didn't pick any peaches. He put it on top anyway and began to back away. Kiara turned back around and picked it up, "Where did this come from?"

"It was a present."

Kiara smiled, "Thank goodness there is finally something I recognize. Thanks." She took a few bites as she started to make a pie crust. A couple minutes later she looked at Hoggle who was standing next to the door looking scared. "Where did you get this?"

"Vivian," he said in a small voice. He was almost beginning to feel relieved when nothing seemed to happen, but he should have known better.

Her eyes widened and she tried blinking a few times to clear her vision. Everything around her was started to blur. "How could you give me something from Maleficent?" She knelt to the ground and stared into space. Hoggle cursed himself and ran out of the house and into the labyrinth. The blur in Kiara's mind dissipated and instead was replaced with the illusion that she was back in the forest. She walked for hours and couldn't find her way out. No one came to rescue her and the forest wasn't responding to her pleas for help.

Vivian watched from above as Hoggle left the cottage. She laughed evilly and began to plan phase two, she would have to keep Jareth distracted so he didn't go looking for the girl. Vivian held out her hand, creating a fireball and threw it towards the forest. She sent another one to the opposite side of the labyrinth as well. She took a deep breath and hoped that he would be more concerned about the damage to the labyrinth and not wonder too much about the human.


	23. Disasters

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Thanks for the reviews, love you all, Enjoy!**

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Chapter 23: Disasters**

Jareth was slightly concerned about the girl, not because he didn't get any energy in two days, but because he hoped that she was recovering from all the energy she released. He wouldn't totally admit that to himself and continued to tell himself that he just didn't want to have to conserve energy. He ended up getting distracted when a goblin came in to report that the southern and eastern forests were going up in flames. Jareth immediately flew there and worked to put out the fires. He sat back against a tree breathing heavily once it was safe; he barely got a few minutes before he received reports of earthquakes on the western side.

Flying was now completely impossible and he knew by the time he walked to the other side that the destruction would have been done. He needed to find Kiara and get more energy so he sent messengers out to find her while he headed in the direction of her cottage. Vivian watched and began to curse her luck as she tried to think of a new plan. Finally a small smile crept on her face, since she didn't actually use a spell on Kiara there shouldn't be any way for Jareth to detect that it was her that did it. Also since Jareth didn't have much power left, he might not be able to reverse it. Satisfied that her plan could still work she sent a few more catastrophes throughout the labyrinth and flew home.

As Jareth walked more and more goblins came to him to report new problems and update him on what was going on. He ground his teeth trying to figure out what could have been going on and hoped that it was not Kiara's doing. He was halfway there when Didymus met up with him looking concerned, "Your majesty, the lady Kiara is at home but will not speak to me."

Jareth glared at him, "What is wrong with her now?" Jareth took a breath and tried to get his annoyance until control. He was getting fed up with keeping this girl happy.

"I do not know your highness. She is sitting on the floor of her kitchen and not moving or speaking."

Jareth's widened with concern, "She is still alive though?"

"Yes." Jareth dismissed Didymus and continued to walk towards the house. As he walked he tried to mentally search the labyrinth for Vivian, but didn't find her.

"She must have had something to do with this," he said to himself as another goblin ran towards him with a list of creatures that were injured and killed by the recent destruction. He looked over the list sad to see that some of the people on the list were actually entertaining or mildly intelligent. He continued to look through it saw that Hoggle's name was on the list under injured. With a drawn out sigh he continued to head towards the cottage to figure out what was going on.

He arrived at the cottage and found Kiara exactly where Didymus said she was. She was kneeling on the floor with her back against a wall, her eyes were glazed over and staring towards the floor. In her mind she was still wandering through a forest; she could hear voices of the people around her, but they couldn't hear her. Jareth lightly touched her shoulder and tried to sense a spell finding nothing. After a full inspection of her surroundings he came across the peach and saw that she had eaten quite a bit of it.

"Kiara? You are going to have to get yourself back; I don't have the energy to do it for you."

Kiara heard Jareth's voice echo through the trees and almost cried. Jareth couldn't save her and she didn't know how to save herself. She laid back on the grass and stared up at the trees above her, she couldn't even see the sky it was so dense. She closed her eyes remembering everything Jareth had taught her and tried to imagine being back in her kitchen with the small wooden table that Hoggle built for her. She tried to imagine that she was sitting on the windowsill next to the red flowers Jareth gave her. Suddenly she wasn't scared anymore of being lost in the forest and she felt perfectly relaxed and free. She opened her eyes again to see Jareth watching her carefully. He didn't seem to notice she was back; she tried to say something, but found that she couldn't move or speak. She was stuck like that, only her eyes were free.

Jareth saw her eyes looking at him with fear, "Are you alright now?" She didn't answer, her eyes still locked with Jareth's. "Can you move?" Still no answer. "Alright, just relax and concentrate on feeling your magic flow through you." She closed her eyes again and tried her best. It took almost an hour, but soon she was able to get a sense of her own magic and tried to use it to reverse the spell that was keeping her still. Another hour later and she was able to speak and then move her arms. By the end of the night she was completely free, although very exhausted.

"That evil bitch, Vivian, poisoned me," she said as soon as she was comfortably resting on her couch. She leaned into Jareth who almost pulled away in surprise; he didn't know why she was doing that.

"It might be better if you stayed at the castle where I can protect you. She will not give up and I cannot keep coming to your rescue."

Kiara looked up, "Last time she put a spell on me she did it right in front of you. How are you going to protect me? You need a permanent solution to your magic problems, in the meantime teach me to defend myself with magic."

"She caused a lot of damage today and when I do get my power back she will pay for it." Jareth looked out the window angrily and they spent the rest of the night in silence. He spent the night in her bed, while she stayed on the couch thinking. She wondered if she just directly asked the labyrinth for the answer, if it would tell her. Everyone seemed to like to go about things in a roundabout way in this world, she wondered if anyone just took a direct route.

Kiara left a crystal of energy for Jareth before heading out the next morning. She went straight to her favorite courtyard and sat down on the fountain looking out at the statues of Jareth's parents. She felt a little bit stupid for asking statues for help, but it was better than doing absolutely nothing. She was about to try to bring them to life when she heard something move behind her. She turned to see someone hide behind some bushes. Curious, she got up and found Hoggle trying to run away from her.


	24. Talking with Statues

**A/N Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Can Jareth come out of the cage yet? Love my reviewers, enjoy!**

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**Chapter 24: Talking with Statues**

"Hoggle! Get back here." He stopped and kept staring at the ground; he was ashamed of himself just as he knew he would be. Kiara looked at him for a few minutes wondering why she wasn't angrier with him; he betrayed her. She wanted to yell at him to make herself feel better, but he just looked so pathetic right then. She knew from the goblins reports that the earthquake caused part of a building to fall and some debris had landed on him. He got out of it with a sprain and some bruises, but he was the part of the cause of the mess in the first place.

Kiara decided he wasn't worth it and turned back towards the fountain. He followed her a bit and watched as she pulled out two crystals and held them in front of her, "Bring these two statues to life." She tossed them towards the statues and watched expectantly as they popped. At first nothing happened and Kiara began to lose hope, but then the female statue opened her eyes and moved her arm experimentally.

"This is interesting," the female statue said. The male statue stretched and looked at his surroundings. Eventually both of them looked at Kiara waiting to find out what she needed them for.

"Uh, Hi!" Kiara started, "I was wondering if either of you two knew how to fix Jareth's magic." The statues looked at each other and the female nodded.

"Yes."

"Great, could you tell me?" Kiara breathed a sigh of relief wondering why Jareth didn't try this.

The statue of Jareth's mother smiled brightly, "He fell in love with a woman and he needs to get her back."

Kiara's smile fell, "That's not going to be possible. See he fell in love with a human who didn't love him."

The statues looked at each other again and Kiara wondered if they were telepathic or something. "I do not believe that has ever happened before. When a fae bonds with another they should be together for life."

"I'm not sure how he bonded with her; he never spoke with her before he fell in love. You can't tell me it's always love at first sight." The looks on the statues faces told Kiara that she was wrong, "Really? No dating at all?"

"No," the male finally spoke.

"Great what do we do now? I can't spend my entire life giving Jareth energy and avoiding Vivian, it is really starting to wear me out. What happened with you two? Or do you not have his parent's memories?"

The female smiled at Kiara kindly, "We do have their memories. The same thing happened when my husband died, I began to lose power so I turned the labyrinth over to my son and moved away to live out the little time I had left."

"Please tell me there is another way, anything. Can't he find someone new? Is there a spell or something that will fix it?"

The female statue shrugged, but the male looked thoughtful for a minute. "There may be one way," he started, "There was a legend of a moonstone that held such power. If Jareth finds another mate he finds agreeable and gives her the stone then his power should return."

Kiara jumped up excitedly, "Great! Now where can we find this stone and what's the catch?"

"It is supposed to be buried with the first Goblin King who legend has it had a similar problem to Jareth. The catch is that he will be stuck with this woman until death. The first king did not want to give up his throne after his mate died and so chose another. The second woman was only after the power, but he didn't know it until it was too late. He spent the rest of his life hating his wife and praying for death."

"Oh, so no cheating or divorce goes on down here?"

"He did cheat on his wife, but he still had to share the kingdom with her and the power that comes with it. The new woman Jareth chooses will not be guaranteed to feel the same way towards him."

Kiara thought about that for a moment, "Well it didn't work for him the first time, why not?"

"Possibly because she is human and not bound by the same laws as we are," Jareth's mother answered.

"Thank you so much, umm do you need me to put you guys back as statues or would you rather go free?"

The male bowed slightly to her, "Your spell will wear off in a few hours, until then I would rather stay able to move freely." The female nodded her agreement.

"Ok, thanks again." Kiara ran back to her house happy to see that Jareth was still there.


	25. Moonstone

**A/N Own Nothing that didn't break out of my head. Thanks to my reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 25: Moonstone**

Jareth had spent his day thinking about how to get back at Vivian and worrying about Kiara. He would have gone looking for her if he was actually willing to admit that he cared about her. He was happy to see her come home, but glared at her angrily anyway.

"It's nice to see you too Jareth," Kiara said as she passed him, "Your dad might have the solution to your problems."

"My father?" Jareth looked at the girl questioningly. "My father is not alive."

Kiara nodded, "I know, but I brought the statues of your parents to life and your dad told me that the reason your power is fading if because your bonded to Sarah. Didn't you know that? They told me it happens to everyone."

Jareth's eyes widened with understanding, "I didn't think that could happen between a fae and a human. I also never heard of the entire kingdom dying with the king."

"How long does a dying fae usually keep their kingdom? You mom said she handed it over to you right after your dad died." Jareth sat down, all his hopes that there was a solution to his problems gone. He had to come to the realization that he was going to die and Vivian would take over. Kiara sat next to him and lightly touched his shoulder, "Your dad said there was a gem called a moonstone buried with the first king that could let you choose a new bride. You can go and visit some fae princesses and see if there is anyone you like."

Jareth shook his head sadly, "No fae would do that. It's supposed to be a special day when a bonded couple meet each other for the first time; why would a woman give that up for this place." Jareth may love running the labyrinth, but he knew how the majority of the underground felt about it.

Kiara put an arm around Jareth trying to comfort him and thought for moment, "Why don't we find this moonstone first and then worry about finding you a new girlfriend." After a few minutes Jareth nodded and started walking towards the castle, Kiara followed behind him giving him some time to think before asking him something that had been on her mind for awhile, "Can you teach me how to fly?"

Jareth looked at her was a small smirk, "Just imagine yourself as a bird. You are learning fairly quickly on your own, you don't need me to teach you anymore." Kiara nodded and gave it a try while Jareth continued to walk away. She tried to imagine herself as an owl like Jareth's, but she kept thinking of him instead. Next she thought it would be fun to be a hawk and swoop around, she laughed to herself as she thought of herself like that and before she knew it she was suddenly much closer to the ground. She yelled out in fear, but a strange sound came out of her mouth. Jareth turned around quickly and raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Give me some energy and we can fly together."

Kiara transformed back without realizing it, "How can I do that while I am a bird? Why am I not a bird anymore?" Jareth didn't answer so she just gave him enough energy to fly and together they turned back into birds. Jareth took off and Kiara tried her best to fly but crashed every time she tried to take off. The sound of laughter echoed through her head, "Jareth?"

"Watch me," the echo said and Jareth landed next to her and took off again. Kiara followed his movements and was able to get up into the air. She followed him towards the castle doing her best to fly straight. Jareth's laughter kept flowing through her head and she did her best to glare at him with her new hawk eyes. They landed on Jareth's balcony and transformed back. "Not bad, for a human."

Kiara wanted to throw something at the arrogant jerk, "I am not a human anymore am I?" Jareth looked into her eyes which seemed to be done changing and shook his head.

"I don't think you are finished changing though, right now I have no clue what you are. Fangs and yellow circles in your eyes doesn't tell me much."

"Pointed ears now too, kind of like an elf," she said as she pushed her hair back so Jareth could see. He grinned evilly and at her, but didn't say anything. "You know now don't you?" He continued to grin. "Fine don't tell me. I hope whoever you choose to marry will be extremely laid back so they can put up with you." She crossed her arms and stared angrily at him, but that only made his grin wider. "Where is the tomb?"

"It's underneath the castle, come," Jareth said as he lead the way through the Escher room. Kiara tried to follow as carefully as possible, it was extremely disorienting to be suddenly upside down or sideways. Finally they reached a stone door that looked like it had been sealed for centuries.

"I guess no one goes in there," Kiara said as she saw Jareth have some difficulty with the door.

"Only when royalty dies, other than that there is no other reason to be in there." They tried pulling at the door together and finally got it to crack open. Jareth walked right through, but Kiara was worried that the door would shut and lock them in. She found a large rock inside and hoped that it would stop the door if it decided to close.

"How long ago was that?" They were now in a long corridor and passing by some empty spaces that Kiara assumed would be future resting places.

"About a thousand years ago." Jareth kept his eyes forward looking for the right passageway to turn.

They continued for awhile with the air becoming more and more dusty and stale. Being in such an enclose space for so long started making Kiara get a bit claustrophobic so she tried to continue their conversation, "I saw one of Hoggle's calendars, your years aren't the same as ours are they?"

"No."

"So you've lived longer than I thought, it looked to me like the years down here are longer than ours but in some strange way take up the same amount of time."

"We are almost there," Jareth said as he quickly turned down another passageway and through a small door. They found themselves in a room filled with gold, gems, and statues of goblins. In the center was a golden coffin with strange letters on them. Kiara was scared, but Jareth just opened up the coffin and pulled a bright blue stone necklace out. He shut the coffin and turned to walk out.

Kiara stood there stunned for a moment before following, "Wait, wait, wait. That was all you had to do was just reach in and take it?" Jareth glanced at her with a strange look. "No curses or booby traps or anything? Nothing to stop you from getting it?"

"Should there be?"

"Yes, have you ever read any fairy tales or watched any movies? You never walk into a tomb and walk out again without something going wrong."

Jareth smirked, "Well maybe the door will have closed on us. Will that make you happy?" Kiara scowled at Jareth and was relieved to find that the door was still very much open. They walked into Jareth's bedroom and he handed Kiara an old looking book and opened it to a page for her. "A runner will be coming in soon; while I deal with her I want you to try this spell. It is really advanced magic, but if it works it will make my life easier."


	26. Baby Siren

**A/N Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me, Thanks to my reviewers and my beta. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 26: Baby Siren**

Kiara read through the page of the book Jareth gave her trying to make out all of the words, most of the ink had faded and it was written in such a strange way that she was having difficulty understanding it even if she could read it. "What will it do?"

"If you can do it, then it will allow me to take you magic as I need it instead of you giving it to me. I doubt you can do it, but you might as well try." Jareth flew out the balcony to meet the new runner. With a sigh Kiara took the book down to the throne room, she wanted to see the child that had just been wished away before she had to get started on spell casting.

The little girl was about three years old with long black hair. She wasn't afraid of the goblins and was happily playing with them. Kiara picked her up for minute and swung her around wondering why she had been wished away. Instead of leaving, Kiara decided to stay with the girl while she practiced the spell. She knew that the goblins had a lot of experience babysitting, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to trust them.

Jareth was having a lot of fun with this runner. Five hours into the game and she just barely made it inside. He watched from above as he sent his minions to scare and confuse her. He was just waiting for her to give up. About eight hours into the game, Jareth felt a rush of magic come from the castle and felt a strange sensation that he couldn't place. He checked in on the new runner and headed back towards Kiara. She was holding the toddler, looking pale and worn out. She looked up at Jareth, "Did it work?"

"I think it did, well done. I can feel your magic much easier now, why didn't you tell me that giving me your magic was wearing you out so much?"

Kiara smirked as she bounced the little girl around, "I didn't think your majesty cared as long as you could fly."

Jareth gave her an annoyed glance before looking out the window with a smile, "She has given up; I will be back." He flew out as quick as he came in and Kiara got up to watch him leave. The little girl pointed at the owl and laughed. Kiara felt bad about taking the baby away from her mother, she suddenly thought about how many children Jareth had taken from their homes. How could he be so cruel, no one could really have meant it?

After he sent the runner home and returned the castle he came into the throne room and found Kiara staring angrily at him, "What is wrong?"

Kiara hugged the baby tightly, "How can you do that to a mother? You just stole her baby and what will she turn into? How can you do this?"

Jareth looked at the small girl for a minute, "I believe she is destined to be a siren. You may come with me to drop her off at her new home."

"No! I am taking her back!"

Jareth glanced at Kiara's face seeing how upset this was making her; the link she created also allowed him to sense exactly what she was feeling. He let out an annoyed sigh, "Sometimes this is for the best, trust me on this."

Kiara looked at the little girl again, "Will she really have a better life here?" Jareth nodded and put an arm around her, a second later she found herself standing in front of a lake where beautiful women with blue markings were sitting on rocks. He handed the baby to one of them and spoke to her in a language Kiara did not understand. The woman laughed excitedly and hugged the girl to her chest. Jareth came back and asked her if she was ready to head home. "Will she take good care of her?"

Jareth looked back at the new mother, "She is unable to have any of her own and had been wishing for this day for a long time." He shook himself and went back to looking like he didn't care. He used Kiara's magic to transport them back to the castle. She felt the rush of magic leave her once again and leaned on the bed once she was able to see it.

"I don't like instantly transporting, it makes me really tired," she said as she sat down.

"Tomorrow we will have to do it again, there is an event going on at the High Queen's palace, I will require you to come to come with me to attempt to find a wife."

Kiara nodded and laid down falling asleep instantly. Jareth laughed at her and situated her so that she would be more comfortable. He left to get things packed and ready for the two of them to leave the kingdom.

Jareth shook Kiara awake the next afternoon, she wearily opened her eyes and tried to pay attention to what he was saying to her. Apparently she had to spend the next couple of days playing the part of a lowly servant and there were a bunch of rules she needed to learn. He handed her some appropriate clothing and left her to get dressed. When he came back in when he sensed that she was extremely agitated by something.

Kiara was standing in the middle of his bedroom with her arms crossed, staring at the ceiling. He looked her over thinking that the servant's clothes made her look rather appealing. It was a green dress with a low neckline, low back, thick straps, and a belt around the middle. He began to walk around her to see her from all angles, when he got to her back he let out a small laugh. His suspicions as to what she was changing into where now confirmed. "Is this why you're upset?" he asked as he gently touched the small bumps that were forming.

"What is on my back?" she asked as she ran to a mirror to try and see what he was touching. "What the hell is that?"

"You'll see," he responded evilly, "Then what is making you unhappy now?"

Kiara went back to looking up, "I don't like the dress."

"That's all? You are overly agitated by your clothing?" Jareth was very surprised; he didn't think she really cared much about her clothing since she normally wore loose long sleeved shirts with pants. She never acted like the type to worry about fashion. She frowned a bit and didn't answer. She kept her arms crossed and started fidgeting a bit. Jareth looked at her more carefully and noticed a few small white lines on her arms and across her chest, if he wasn't inspecting her so closely he probably wouldn't have even noticed. He came up close and lightly touched one on her arm. He felt her get even more nervous as he did, "What are these from?"

"Don't want to talk about it," she responded harshly. He let it go and transported them to High Queen's palace. He was glad he was holding onto Kiara, because as soon as they appeared she passed out. Jareth barely caught her in time and carried her away so that no one would see them. She was only out a few seconds before she opened her eyes again, "What happened?"

"It seems that I am wearing you out even more than I thought, can you walk?" Jareth put her back down and she slowly took a few steps. She nodded and followed Jareth remembering to keep her eyes down. Jareth was greeted by many of the fae ladies who had heard that he was searching for a new wife. Most of them weren't really interested, but enjoyed having the opportunity to flirt.


	27. High Queen's Palace

**A/N Me: Own Nothing that doesn't belong to me. Hey Jareth, did you see someone gave us cookies in the last review and I'm not going to share haha. **

**Jareth: *Glares at Me***

**Me: Ok you can have one as long as you promise to be nice. Thanks for the reviews, this chapter is on the short side, sorry and blame my grammar problems on my beta *evil grin* hehe, kidding I love my beta. **

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**Chapter 27: High Queen's Palace**

"Jareth, darling, it's nice to see you." Kiara heard a familiar voice and couldn't help herself; she lifted her head and stared angrily into Vivian's eyes.

"Vivian, a pleasure as always," Jareth responded coldly.

"I didn't think you were going to make it; I had heard that terrible things happened to the labyrinth. Rumor has it that you are looking for a new wife, is that true?" Vivian said as sweetly as she could manage. Kiara was disgusted by her and looked over at her servant boy; he was a complete wreck, he couldn't even stop shaking.

"Yes, it is true."

"Hmm, interesting and I see you still have the human with you," she said without even hiding her distaste, "I am sure she will make a lovely fairy." Kiara's eyes widened as Jareth smirked.

"I think so."

Vivian nodded as if though she was actually interested, "Well you know Jareth, I have never bonded with anyone and at my age I very much doubt it will happen." She paused to give Jareth a chance to comment, he just looked at her and waited for her to continue. "So if you need a new partner I would be happy to assist you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Jareth said unhappily and left to mingle with other people. Kiara kept her eyes on Vivian who only glared at her.

Kiara took a chance and whispered to Jareth, "You aren't really going to consider her are you?" Jareth looked away and didn't answer. "Jareth?"

After checking that no one was close enough to hear him speaking to his servant he answered, "I might have to."

"No," she started, but another woman came over to chat with Jareth and he went back to ignoring her. She looked down and continued to follow Jareth until she vaguely heard someone tell him that they would escort her to the servant's quarters. Kiara gave Jareth a worried glance, but he didn't look at her. He nodded to the small elf like creature who gestured to Kiara that she should follow.

"The servant's room is this way," the elf said as walked down some stairs into what looked like a dungeon. A bunch of cots were set up and a group of creatures looked up to see the new arrival before going back to their own business. Kiara went to ask the elf a question, but when she turned around he was already gone. She sighed and sat down on an occupied cot next to a dwarf woman.

"Hi! I'm Kiara, who do you work for?" Kiara asked. She might as well make some friends if she was going to be there for a few days.

The dwarf looked her over for a minute before responding, "I am Rubina, I belong to the Lady Kenisha, queen of the sea, what about you?"

"I belong to Jareth, the Goblin King. Do you actually live in the ocean?" The dwarf looked at her like she was incredibly stupid. "I'm sorry; I am kind of new here. I am a recent wish-away."

Rubina nodded with understanding, "The Lady Kenisha has a castle in the ocean, however I cannot breathe under water and live on the shores."

"Is Lady Kenisha a mermaid?"

"No, but she does rule over them." Kiara smiled and continued asking a bunch of questions which Rubina happily continued to answer. The talked late into the night until some of the other servants began to get annoyed at the noise.

The next few days passed quickly for Kiara who spent as much of her time as she possibly could meeting different types of underground inhabitants. Soon she knew almost all of the fae's servants and about each kingdom and their rulers. She occasionally thought about Jareth and hoped he was finding someone that could stand him for next thousand years or so. From what she heard from the servants she thought his best chance was a princess called Tia. She was the oldest girl, all of her sisters had already bonded and left home. Her servant was a dark fairy named Gannon; he told her that Tia was extremely stuck up, but nowhere near as bad as Vivian.

Jareth wasn't having as much fun as Kiara was though. He was having trouble weeding through all the ladies that he really had a chance with and the then deciding if he could actually stand them for the rest of his life. There were very few people he knew that he could stand to be around with as it was and that was usually only because he enjoyed kicking them into the bog. He was almost worried about Kiara being on her own until he actually took a moment to try and get a feel for her emotions; whatever she was doing she was enjoying herself. He just hoped that she wasn't causing any trouble.


	28. Princess Tia

**A/N Me: Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. I'm going away this weekend so I'm putting the rest of the chapters up tonight.**

**Jareth: The people could wait til you got back.**

**Me: Yeah.... but no I'll post the chapters today.**

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**Chapter 28: Princess Tia**

Late one evening, the elf that had brought Kiara down to the servant's area came down to let her know that His Highness required her. Fighting an urge to giggle and roll her eyes, Kiara bowed slightly to the elf and thanked him and headed towards the room Jareth was staying in. It was the first time she was going to see him since they arrived and she couldn't wait to hear how everything was going. She knocked on the door and waited for Jareth to call her in, she was glad she thought to knock when she saw that he had a visitor.

"Oh Jareth, you have a cute little fairy. It would be a perfect match with mine," said a blonde woman. She was shorter than Jareth, but not by much and looked very delicate. Kiara wondered if she was one of the women Jareth was considering and sat on the floor to observe her for awhile.

"Yes, she is called Kiara, stupid girl wished herself away," Jareth said to the woman. He was holding her hands in his as he talked to her. Kiara's eyes narrowed at Jareth and looked away when their eyes met. She didn't care if they were supposed to be acting the part; he didn't need to call her a stupid girl.

The woman walked over to Kiara and lifted her head, turning it back and forth as she examined her, "Hmm, well you are quite attractive by fairy standards and you definitely have some potential." She sneered at Kiara for minute before returned to Jareth's side. "I sense something strange in her, I don't like her. I can see the defiance in her eyes; she will not make a good servant for me. If you choose me to be your new bride then I want her returned to the aboveground."

Jareth nodded, "I see, I will let you know what I decide." He held onto the woman's arm and escorted her out the door. She gave him a small kiss on the cheek as she sent Kiara a hateful glance and took off towards her own room.

Kiara stood up and dusted herself off, "Any luck?" Jareth ignored her and sat down at a little table that was filled with a variety of meats, cheeses and fruits. She sat down across from him and waited to see if he would get himself out of his bad mood. She looked at the food tray and saw a few items that looked interesting, "What is this?" Jareth continued to stay in his own thoughts and ignore her, "Ok, so who was that then?"

"Don't bother me with all of your questions," Jareth said angrily. Kiara looked hurt at first, but then crossed her arms and sulked for a bit. He looked at her wishing that she could be just a normal servant girl and then his problems would be over. If she was just any normal girl then he wouldn't even think twice about sending her aboveground so that he could take a bride. For some strange reason, unknown to Jareth, he wanted this girl to stay with him.

"I'm so sorry, your highness. If you don't have any need of me then I will return to the dungeon," Kiara said as she got up to leave.

"Stop," Jareth looked out the window as he called her back. Kiara did come back keeping her arms crossed so that she wasn't tempted to punch Jareth right in the face. "That was Princess Tia; she is the only willing fae I have found that doesn't want to see me dead."

"Not a popular guy are you?"

"No, apparently not."

"Well I do like Gannon," she said as Jareth looked at her curiously, "Gannon is her fairy, but would you really send me away?" Jareth didn't answer and Kiara took that as a yes, "So when are you going to ask her?"

"I haven't decided on her yet."

"You can't really tell me that you would rather have Vivian?

Jareth kept his eyes down as he thought about it, "Vivian is much stronger, we would have a better chance of creating a powerful heir. On the other hand, she wants to get rid of most of my subjects. Tia would be much easier to control, but I would really hate to be around her any more than necessary."

"When do we go back?"

"Tonight, that is why I called you in here. We can leave right now." Kiara nodded and Jareth held onto her as they instantly transported to her cottage. He left her so that he could think for awhile and she changed out of the horrible dress and into comfortable clothing. She was almost ready to go to bed when she saw that Hoggle's lights were still on at his house. She ran over and knocked on his door.

"Who is it?" said an angry voice as the door opened. "Oh, it's you."

"Hey Hoggle, can I come in?" He shrugged and moved aside so that she could walk into his little shack. "I just got back with Jareth from the High Queen's Palace, he needs to choose a bride and it's between Vivian and Tia, who wants to get rid of me."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Who else would I tell, besides Jareth you are my best friend down here," Kiara said with a laugh.

Hoggle raised his eyebrows feeling confused, "But I gave you that peach from Vivian, I ain't a good friend."

Kiara shrugged, "No you're not, but you did save my life before. I think that gives you a free pass." The two spent the night talking about everything that went on in the palace and wondering what Jareth would do. Kiara was sure that Vivian would take any opportunity to strike again and she needed to be on her guard.


	29. Decisions

**A/N Me: Own nothing that doesn't belong to me. Posting another chapter today and the last one so enjoy everyone!**

**Jareth: Does this mean I am free now?**

**Me: No, the people might want a sequel or I might have something more evil planned for you.**

**Jareth: *Rolls Eyes* **

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**Chapter 29: Decisions**

Jareth was waiting in Kiara's living room the next morning. He spent the whole night flying through the labyrinth hoping for an easy answer and nothing came to mind. His only possible solution was to make Kiara decide that the aboveground was a better place to live and then he wouldn't get that horrible feeling if he just sent her away. She came out happy to see Jareth at first, but then worried about the way he looked.

"Why do you like it in my labyrinth?" Jareth asked. He almost sounded like her psychiatrist when he asked the question, like he didn't really care but needed to know anyway.

"Because I love the fact that magic exists here. I was so bored with life in the aboveground, I almost couldn't stand it."

"And if I sent you back there and stripped you off your power to return, what would you do?"

Kiara saw now exactly where this was going, "I won't answer that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know, I would love to tell you that I would be fine, but I am not sure I would be. Most likely I think I would end up going back into depression I was in before I came here."

Jareth considered that for a minute, "At least you would be alive." He knew that Vivian hated Kiara and it wouldn't be beneath her to have her executed the moment she stepped out of line. He smirked slightly thinking of how often that would be.

"Not for long," Kiara answered before she had a chance to stop herself. She tried to cover her mistake up, "I mean, not a real life."

"So you have tried to harm yourself before?" Jareth asked as he remembered her visit to the hospital. Kiara didn't answer and he thought briefly of her scars that she didn't like being able to see. "Well maybe you should do the kingdom a favor and get on with it so that my decision would be easier."

Kiara was shocked at Jareth's rapid mood swing. She had seen his evil side a few times, but he had never been that bad to her before. "Don't let me influence you decision, do whatever you want. Maybe I should have just let you die in the first place," she said angrily and regretted it when she saw the flash of hurt cross Jareth's eyes. It almost wasn't there and if she didn't know him so well she wouldn't have noticed the change in his arrogant look. She immediately hated herself for acting like him when she was angry. Jareth left without another word and Kiara pulled at her hair as frustrated tears began to fall. It wasn't until she heard the worst sound in the world that she pulled herself together.

"Deary, come out." Kiara walked out of her house to see Vivian waiting for her. She was floating a bit above the ground, "I've decided that I have had enough of this little game. I want you gone so I am going to do it myself." With a small wave of her hand a streak of lightning flashed, Kiara managed to dodge it at the last second.

"What the hell! If you kill me then you know Jareth will just choose Tia right?"

Vivian smirked evilly, "Maybe, but at least you'd be dead. You've almost ruined my chances at the throne, but I think after you are gone I could persuade Jareth to choose me. Tia has such a tiny amount of magic; it's pathetic, practically human."

Another wave of Vivian's hand sent another lightning bolt, Kiara tried to run but she just wasn't fast enough. She tried changing into a hawk, but she didn't have enough practice to do it under such pressure. She desperately needed to fly and fast, without warning a sudden burst of pain came through her back and her wings sprouted. She didn't get much time to look at them before she ran and jumped away from another attack, before she knew it she was in the air facing Vivian.

"That's enough, I'll see to it that you are trapped in the darkest, dirtiest oubliette," Kiara screamed as she pointed at Vivian. A red bolt shot out hitting her right in the chest. She stumbled and looked at Kiara with rage in her eyes.

"You lowly human, how dare you?" Kiara manage to send out another shot before exhausting herself. Jareth used up most of her energy flying the night before. "He will choose me."

"I would rather live my life aboveground totally devoid of magic than see you destroy the labyrinth." Kiara yelled as she attempted to avoid another attack; however she did not have a good sense of where her new wings were and was hit. She fell straight to the ground unable to move and could only watch as Vivian stood ready to finish her off. The next lightning bolt stopped just inches from Kiara's chest. They both looked at each other confused when they heard a man's voice.

"Ladies, I do not think this is appropriate behavior," Jareth said as he pushed Vivian's attack away from Kiara. "Vivian, I am banishing you from my labyrinth."

"You can't do that! I will be queen!" Jareth rolled his eyes at her as he threw a crystal towards her and watched her disappear with it. He carefully lifted Kiara up and took her back to the cottage laying her on the bed.

"I guess this means you are choosing Tia," Kiara said between taking deep breaths. She never hurt so badly in all her life. Not only was her back killing her from the wings instantly growing, but she also gave those muscles more exercise than they were ready for and on top of that Vivian's spell ripped one of her new wings.

"I don't want to choose Tia."

Kiara laughed, "You said yourself that there was no one else. I can't keep the two of us going like this." Jareth nodded slowly and pulled something out of his pocket. Kiara tried to turn to see what it was, but was in too much pain to move. He put the item into her hand and she looked at it confused, it was the moonstone. "You can't be serious."

"You were willing to give up your dreams for the labyrinth; it's more than anyone else would do." Kiara never expected to see such an expression on Jareth's face, there was not a trace of arrogance or evilness about it; he really needed her.

"Jareth, you know I don't love you right?" Kiara smiled at the thought of being a queen, but she couldn't be so selfish.

Jareth actually laughed and then his trademark smirk appeared on his face, "I don't love you either, but I don't hate you. It's the best I could hope for."

Kiara's smile grew, "Ok." Jareth put the necklace on her and it glowed brightly before returning to normal. Jareth and Kiara were both filled with energy and the connection spell she made was broken, there was no longer a need for it. It was done, by underground law they were married. Jareth had his magic back, the labyrinth was restored.


End file.
